What is meant when we say "the present moment is eternal?"

[GabeN]

So I'm imagining the past and the future all the time , and there's nothing but this present moment which many call eternal, can anyone who understands this deeply give me the tip of the rope to really grasp the profundity of this? 

 

The most logical understanding for me about this concept is that our life is like a film tape and we can't view all of it at once , so every moment existed for ever?

I do realize that time is something we're imagining, and it gives the illusion of that we are experiencing life in a linear way, but isn't the present moment present because we imagine the difference of past and future? So what is meant when we say "eternal now"?

 

Thanks

Edited October 13, 2021 by GabeN

[Terell Kirby]

You are all of existence...every aspect of it. (take this literally...this is not a play on words).

There is nothing that exists in the universe but existence itself.

You are eternal.

Edited October 13, 2021 by Terell Kirby

[GabeN]

@Terell Kirby I see what you mean , so relative to my tiny ego I cannot be eternal، but the real self is?

[Terell Kirby]

3 minutes ago, GabeN said:

@Terell Kirby I see what you mean , so relative to my tiny ego I cannot be eternal، but the real self is?

Correct. The ego is one tiny aspect of existence.

The mistake is to think your identity is limited to your human form. You are your human form, and everything else.

Deeply grasps this and you will come to realize that your true "form" is that which is without form.

Edited October 13, 2021 by Terell Kirby

[Matthew85]

34 minutes ago, GabeN said:

So what is meant when we say "eternal now"?

Time is imagined. Outside of the human mind and all its concepts and ideas, there is only the present, continuous, and uninterrupted eternal now. 

[Godishere]

You won't logically grasp this, you need to change your state of consciousness. Then you can see it from a bird's eye view, metaphorically speaking. You will reconnect with the True Self and see that everything is being imagined and held within the moment. The concept of you as a human will die and you will still be conscious. Therefore, you cannot die because you were never human to begin with and the moment becomes eternal. Eternal because consciousness is the one thing that exists and everything you imagine that exists or does not exist is within it. Hard to explain without experiencing it. Another way to think of it by imagining what's outside of consciousness? Become aware that anything you imagine is held within consciousness because that's what you are. An infinite intelligent being that imagines it's finitude. Past and future don't exist because they are imagined by consciousness to construct what you call "life".

[Nahm]

1 hour ago, GabeN said:

So I'm imagining the past and the future all the time , and there's nothing but this present moment which many call eternal, can anyone who understands this deeply give me the tip of the rope to really understand this? 

You got it pretty well there. You’re imagining that there is past and future, while there’s nothing but the present. Yet if we get more intricate, the persistence or stickiness is the claiming / identifying, such as I’m imagining. To ‘unstick’ that belief, imagine whatever, then purposefully don’t, and notice it isn’t making any difference. 

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The most logical understanding for me about this concept is that our life is like a film tape and we can't few all of it at once , every moment existed for ever?

Roll with just ‘the present’, or even better… just… This. “This” is helpful in regard to gettin out of concepts about This, and recognizing ‘it’ IS This. When you add ‘moment’ it’s time, ‘every moment’ is more so, and to realize there is no change sort of requires realizing there is no time. Notice you are not, as you say, ‘imagining the past & future all the time’. You’re imagining it right now, or not at all. The thought about ‘all the time’, is a thought which arises now or not at all. Also notice, whatever could be meant by logic or understanding, it isn’t in a past or future, and it arises ‘in’ the present only as the thought, that there is, logic or understanding. As in, when you attempt to point to it you can not. Then revisit the ‘stickiness’ of claiming and connect those two dots. Don’t expect to ‘think’ realization. Contemplate it, then let it go. For good. Gone. That way the realization can arise where it was so to speak. 

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I do realize that time is something we're imagining, and it gives the illusion of linearly, but isn't the present moment present because we imagine the difference of past and future? So what is meant when we say "eternal now"?

There’s no experience of “we’re imagining”. You imagine that. Time doesn’t give anything because time is a thought. If it’s given, notice really, you’re givin it. No ‘thing’ gives illusion of anything, you are, or you are not. There is no possibility of imagining the difference of past or future, because there truly is not a past or future. That’s a thought, like logic or understanding, and not an actual comparison of anything. 

What is meant when we say the eternal now, is nothing, no thing, not a thing, nothingness, nonduality, not two. Meaning makes two. Thought makes two. Those won’t do.