The Now, The Expansion of the Present

There has been a popularization and emphasis in recent years among some spiritual teachers of the concept that realization is achieved by expanding the present moment, the Now. They urge us to let go of neurotically dwelling on the past and anxiously anticipating the future, to the detriment of hardly being aware of the present, which is all that really ever exists. Expanding a sense of the present, of the Now, will provide a refreshing and invigorating perspective. Such a realization does not require a long and arduous search and effort or assistance from others. We all have the self-contained ability to arrive upon this realization right now.
This is really not a new message, as it has existed in various forms in spiritual teachings for a long time. It is no better portrayed than in the modern American tale of The Wizard of Oz. A traumatic event spurs Dorothy to embark upon a search to find her home, which she thinks she has lost. During her search, her consciousness is greatly expanded and opened to realms beyond her wildest imagination. It takes an encounter with a humbug wizard to lead her to the final realization that the ability to find home was always in her possession all along. It didn’t require a great search and lengthy effort to arrive upon an elusive goal attainable only in the vague and uncertain future of sometime later. It was available right now! The humbug also assists her traveling companions in coming to the realization that they all already possessed the qualities they were searching for elsewhere, so maybe he wasn’t such a humbug after all! This is a portrayal of what one teacher has coined “The Paradox of Instruction” – all that a spiritual teacher can really do is take something out of a student’s back pocket, buff it up, and give it back as a gift. The honest spiritual teachers admit to this sleight of hand; the less than honest ones lead the students to think the gift has come from somewhere else, and that they are indebted to the teacher for what has been bestowed upon them from out of their own pockets! But perhaps Dorothy’s and her companions’ searches and adventures leading to their revelations were somehow beneficial, and maybe even necessary. Perhaps without those preliminaries, they wouldn’t have been able to realize the value of the gifts bestowed upon them by the wizard.
Traditional Jewish sources provide certain insights into two profound “expanding the moment” events that occurred in close proximity to each other in the Torah: an elevation of the masses to a high level of consciousness that occurred right after they successfully left Egypt after the parting of the Red Sea, which instigated the group composing the famous “Song by the Sea”; and a similar raising of group consciousness at the foot of Mt. Sinai at the time of the giving of the Ten Commandments. The revelation shared by the masses at those times involved seeing that what was occurring at that precise time and place was perfect, that everything that had occurred before had led inexorably to that time and place, that everything that was going to occur thereafter proceeded inexorably from that time and place, and that everything that had occurred and that would occur was in perfect accord with the Divine scheme of things. There was a realization brought into consciousness of the perfection that was, is, and always will be. (Hayah Hoveh V’Ehyeh). The past, present and future merge; they exist everywhere all of the time. There really is only the present. The universe is unfolding as it should, but not in complacency; for every entity of every kind has its unique function and mission to fulfill in that unfolding, whether consciously or unconsciously, and perhaps even with a sense of urgency.