Be Here Now.

You've probably heard that statement before, whether from a spiritual guru or plastered on the license plate of the person in front of you that just cut you off. Regardless of where you've seen it, what does it mean?

There is no moment but the now. The past and the future cannot be said to exist anymore once they have passed and when they occur. The now is the moment where all potential is held, where everything exists and manifests and where all of "it" is experienced.

There is no place but the here. Over there cannot be said to exist because all of "it" is experienced from the "here". You climb a mountain, where are you? On top of a mountain? You're here, on top of a mountain now, the scenery has changed the temperature has changed the visuals have changed the sensory inputs have all changed but still, here you are.

I believe being here now greatly ties into what the psychedelic experience is all about. Regardless of all your problems, if you focus on the here and now, the best "self" that you can be will emerge. Psychedelics can help you destroy all illusions and delusions that take you away from the here and now. Here is why I think this...

When I first started my journey psychedelics gave me the experiences and the answers I was looking for. What are we here for? Who am I? What am I supposed to be doing? As I continued through these experiences it seemed like there were less answers in language form and more of a being still. Being still and knowing. For all knowledge is present in the here and now already. It just takes awareness to understand.

At first I was fascinated with the visions and the insights. Of course, I thought. Now I REALLY know everything, I had gained so much knowledge, amazing experiences and insights. But these too shall pass. For what did I really have of these things but a memory? What could I use of these things besides what my frail mind could access and barely interpret? What does a pale memory compare to the reality that was always right before my eyes?

Now the psychedelics give me something different, they give me an energy, for all is energy. And it has made me think, perhaps these visions and insights were the own tangled knots in my brain. When you infuse a knot with energy it expands and projects outwards where you can see it clearly. Like how a cinematic projector blasts light through the reel of a movie and projects it out onto the screen. Mushrooms were the light, my own brain was the movie reel, until the movie was ended and the only thing left was the light.

The "light" is the here and now. Where my being was all along. Where we all are all along. And where we never have left. Free of delusions, free of suffering, ultimately free.

Now I'm "becoming" more and more while learning nothing at all, only unveiling what's already there. I'm writing while hardly thinking at all. I'm thinking without trying at all. I'm being with less and less effort. What more do I have to learn from these experiences? What do we have to learn? Where will this road go? "I" do not know. If I knew all of my own road, how could I walk it?

Peace be unto you all.

Love,

Spacexplorer

A man walks along a path, he is heading up to an unseen/unknown summit. He knows he has enough food and water for himself, to last 12 more days.

He has been alone for his entire existence, not even a glance in a mirror at his own reflection.

He walks past a pile of bones and thinks to himself. "Well, that is strange." And keeps going.

He comes around a bend in the path and sees another man, sitting on a rock.

The first man hails.

"Hello, I am climbing this path to find the summit. I have twelve days of food left."

The second man pauses, looking puzzled then replies.

"What is a summit? I have been for days up this path, there is nothing but the path ahead. My food was running out, so I turned around. Will you share your food and join with me for the journey back?"

The first man.

"A summit is the meaning of existence, it is why I am here. Of course I will share my food, will you join me?"

The second man replies.

"There is no summit the way you are going, I cannot join you. But thank-you for the food"

The first man continued up the path, pondering the new information given to him from this strange encounter. He decided to remember what the man had said, and at 3 days in to his journey; if the summit wasn't within sight he would turn around and go back to meet his new friend, hoping the fellow hadn't eaten all the food he had given.

3 days in to his journey past the man at the rock he paused, looked around. Everything looked exactly the same. Confirming that the man was as far as he could tell, 100% correct.

So he turned around and headed back to the rock. Upon arriving to find the area deserted and his belly aching for lack of food, he sat down on the rock to ponder his situation.

Suddenly hearing a voice hail him he spun around to find the man had come back to the rock.

His new friend spoke to him in an all too familiar way.

"Hello, I am climbing this path to find the summit. I have thirteen days of food left."

You mention that the stillness knows. I recall a moment on lsd where this daunted in a sense of knowing this is eternal without knowing.

Where is that story from?

...I can't think of words to explain how it makes me feel, but it's something I've felt before. (we've probably all felt it before)

Very similar to things I've felt on psychedelics. Thanks for that.

Love the proverb! Very relevant to how Ive been thinking recently, there is no future or past they are merely constructs of the mind, neural patterns and if we are always occupied with those constructs then we never are truly existing we are merely reflecting and building on previous neural patterns or creating associations with our imagination. If you take it further than that and consider that we are transient creatures of change then is there actually a 'now' either? Nothing is static therefore nothing exists at one point therefore there is no now everything is in a perpetual state of change.
So if there is no now, the past has occured and the future never occurs then what? maybe being too pedantic, our brains could be compared to a video camera displaying a certain number of frames per second and that frames have to be skipped to avoid overload of data, in short our brains are absorbing all this data mixing it with internal data to form a model of where it is in time and space and providing and creating a cohesive model or idea in order for us to survive. So really the passage of time is an illusion.

Do we actually exist outside of time afterall? The more I think about it the more I feel Hinduism is onto something talking about the great pattern, our brains always playing catch up trying to piece together our unique take on the pattern..gods in a box..the mind boggles.

@DL and DreamT
Thank-you
It came out in response to OP, I'd intended it for something else but this seemed the appropriate place for it with a few minor adjustments. It's pretty psychedelic right?

Oh you wrote it! Ha ok cool, very nice

Yeah, there's something about it that I can't quite put my finger on.....sort of eerie...

that's a real awesome story