Not one but two nows

Buddhists who preach about being in the now or the same, being in the moment, dont seem to realize that there are two nows. There is the moving or temporal now (nunc movens) which makes up samsara and the eternal, unchanging now (nunc stans) of nirvana. When John Blofeld, who translated The Zen Teaching of Huang-Po, said Nirvana is here and now he wasnt referring to the moving now of samsara.

Modern Buddhists who like to infuse Buddhism with Western psychology and new agey ideas, I can guess, are not going to be happy with the idea of two nows (nunc) especially one now being non-transcendent. This leads me to say that I suspect some modern Western Buddhists are suffering from a case of ill-will who are driven to secularize Buddhismturning it into profane (prithagjana) Buddhism. Confusing the two nows is a good way to achieve this. It lets the average person (the rube) believe the temporal now is transcendent when it isnt.

When American Zen master Joko Beck says, "real "Zen practice" is just being here right now and not adding anything to this" (Nothing Special, p. 50), she is referring to the temporal nownot the transcendent now. The average beginner is being deceived who firmly believes being aware of peeling an onion or sitting on a pillow (zafu) is being in the now of Buddhism! This also includes awareness of the moment.

The fact is, we are always in the temporal now whether snoring away on our couch or driving to work sucking down our coffee. Being fully aware of the nows that make up the act of pulling weeds or changing the babys diapers is not going to bring anybody any closer to the eternal, unchanging now. If we wish to give such a practice a label, lets call it temporal Buddhism or profane Buddhism. Such Buddhism is not the Buddhas because it rests on sensory consciousness. Such a mind caught up in the senses cannot even imagine that there is another now beyond the pale of the se! nsory.


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