Why “Be Here Now” Is Possible and Impossible
By Deepak Chopra, MD, FACP, FRCP
Living in the present moment has become a catchphrase for a desirable kind of mindfulness. The most succinct expression of this notion is the phrase “Be here Now,” which was popularized more than a generation ago by the psychologist turned spiritual leader Baba Ram Dass. All three words had their own impact. “Be” implies a kind of non-doing rather than action. “Here” refers to paying attention to where you are. “Now” brings your mind to the present moment.
That’s a powerful combination, and it posed an alternative to how people normally lead their lives. Instead of being, almost everyone is doing, and they would be bored, depressed, or unhappy if they weren’t doing something. Simply being seems like stasis. Instead of being here, the average person is pulled into the restless activity of the mind, and instead of now, they are re-enacting the past through habit, memory, and fixed conditioning.
All of this makes “Be here now” sound difficult but desirable because the normal way we live leads to problems. We are fixated and habitual creatures. We keep repeating the past, constantly seek distractions, and fall prey to the anxiety and depression that afflict the mind. The very notion of how to be happy is controversial, and when people get what they want (a spouse, a better job, a new baby), there is no guarantee that greater happiness or fulfillment will follow.
Yet in balance, “Be here now” has its own pitfalls, and before dedicating yourself to living in the present moment, these need to be understood. If you consider the brain, which must be re-aligned from its normal operations to achieve being here now, you confront two opposites. On the one hand, the brain is capable of change due to a factor known as neuroplasticity, by which new pathways and new brain cells can form. On the other hand, the brains major pathways, known as default mode network (DFM) stubbornly resists change, because having fixed network connections makes the brain stable, which is necessary if you want to perceive a stable world.
A subtler difficulty arises via quantum theory. All physical objects, including the human brain, are subject to a quantum property known as nonlocality. In nonlocality, two particles separated in time and space can instantly respond to each other, like identical twins who happen to do the exact opposite of what the other is doing. The existence of nonlocality defies one of the most important concepts we live by, namely cause and effect.
You can’t have cause and effect without a visible connection, like seeing two billiard balls strike each other. If you hit a billiard ball and other balls on the table start to move without being touched, that’s like nonlocality. For a long time, the quantum property was thought to apply only in space. Defying the principles of relativity, two particles can interact instantly across light years of distance, not just faster than the speed of light but ignoring the concept of distance.
Although more controversial, nonlocality also applies to time. A particle in the future can affect what is happening in the present. This, too, defies a basic principle of everyday existence, namely that the so-called “arrow of time” moves from past to present to future, not the other way around. Taken as a whole, nonlocality describes an entirely different reality, yet the brain is subject to this drastic dislocation of the accepted rules that govern time and space. In addition, the existence of dark matter and energy, which dominate the universe far in excess of visible matter and forces like electromagnetism, radically dislocates reality, too.
What this means for “Be here now” is that here and now don’t exist; they are convenient appearances that we are used to living by. The familiar world seems to be here and now already. That’s not a spiritual goal. It’s the brain’s way of creating a simulated world that functions in an orderly way. The past precedes the future. Physical objects hold their position unless something moves them.
It would be exceedingly strange if “Be here now” wasn’t in place as our constant status quo. So why do these words hold any spiritual significance? It is impossible to alter the normal way that the brain demands “Be here now” in the first place — or so it seems. What the word actually means points in a new direction.
We can give the three words a definition that aligns with nonlocality. “Be” means to exist without fixating on having a local ego, the “me” that identifies with selfish personal desires, needs, and duties. “Here” means the boundless domain of consciousness. “Now” means the eternal now, which is timeless.
This is how the illusion of being limited to a physical body, the endless stream of activity in the mind, and the dread of future catastrophes, including death, is overcome. “Be here now” points to a new existence that transcends the normal course of life. It is helpful simply to realize the possibility being held out. Nonlocality is simply a clue that the “real reality” is timeless, unbounded, uncreated, without beginning or end, and filled with infinite possibilities. All of this is available in the now, not because there is anything special about the present moment per se, but because that is the nature of reality.
The present moment can be numbingly incoherent, which is the experience of Alzheimer’s patients. They are lost in an endless sequence of present moments their brains can no longer process. In fact, when viewed from the perspective of nonlocality, the present moment doesn’t exist as an isolated, disconnected event. It is just an artifact of how our brains squeeze reality down to make it livable.
What is the infinite, eternal domain of all possibilities is also livable? If so, then the present moment becomes what is has always been, a portal you can either pass through or ignore. If you pass through the portal, you begin a journey, whose purpose doesn’t need to be dubbed spiritual. It’s a journey to a higher state of consciousness. Ignoring the portal keeps you in the mind-made conditions that we mistakenly believe are absolute: local time, local place, local identity, local mind.
The difference between the two choices is unmeasurable. “Be here now” is impossible from this side of the portal. Reality is transformed when you learn to “be here now” on the other side.
DEEPAK CHOPRA MD, FACP, FRCP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a whole health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 90 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution for the last thirty years. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Digital Dharma: How to Use AI to Raise Your Spiritual Intelligence and Personal Well-Being. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.” www.deepakchopra.com
