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Attachment to Staying Present

For those of you who have explored Buddism, how many times have you heard that Buddhism is about being in the present moment? What often doesn’t get talked about is Buddhism’s relative priorities. Being present is an important concept of Buddhism but it’s not more important than the notion of clinging. Described differently, attachment.

We all tend to cling to more things than we realize in our day to day. For example, I’m currently clinging to writing this article. In the same way, society has reinforced that being present is the ‘it’ in Buddhism and therefore everyone should let go of responsibilities, past and the future and stay focussed on the present. Staying present brings a lot of clarity to one’s actions. It makes one experience the real you instead of passing life in a literal dream state.

If you are practical though, our day to day living requires planning and learning from our mistakes. A better way to approach being present is doing so without being attached to it. It’s the ability to move between different states of present, past and future to do what is appropriate without clinging.

Ironically, in order to not cling, one needs to be constantly aware of not clinging which is in itself a form of being present but just much more lightly than one would be while being capital P, Present.