Right Away is the Opposite of Now
by Jacob Needleman
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 Some years ago, I was walking downtown San Francisco with a great friend and a learned Tibetan scholar. I asked him about one of the most striking ways that the Tibetans express the uniqueness of the human condition. Imagine, they say, that deep in the vast ocean there swims a great and ancient turtle who surfaces for air once every hundred years. Imagine further that floating somewhere in the ocean is a single ox-yoke carried here and there by random waves and currents. What are the chances that when the turtle surfaces, his head will happen to emerge precisely through the center of the ox-yoke? That is how rare it is to be born as a human being!
In the middle of our conversation, I pointed to the crowds of men and women rushing by on the street and I gestured in a way to indicate not only them, but all the thousands and millions of people rushing around in the world. "Tell me, Lobsang," I said, "if it is so rare to be born a human being, how come there are so many people in the world?"
My friend slowed his pace and then stopped. He waited for a moment, taking in my question. I remember suddenly being able to hear, as though for the first time, the loud and frenetic traffic all around us. He looked at me and very quietly replied, "How many human beings do you see?"
In a flash, I understood the meaning of the story and the idea. Most of the people I was seeing, in the inner state they were in at that moment, were not really people at all. Most were what the Tibetans call "hungry ghosts." They did not really exist. They were not really *there*. They were *busy*, they were *in a hurry*. They — like all of us — were obsessed with doing things *right away*. But *right away* is the opposite of *now* — the opposite of the lived present moment in which the passing of time no longer tyrannizes us. The hungry ghosts are starved for "more" time; but the more time we hungry ghosts get, the more time we "save", the hungrier we become, the less we actually *live*. And I understood that it is not exactly more time, more days and years, that we are starved for, it is the present moment.
Through our increasing absorption in the busyness, we have the present moment. "Right away" is not now. What a toxic illusion!
About the Author: excerpted from Jacob Needleman’s book "Time and the Soul"
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Right Away is the Opposite of Now
How do you relate to the notion that *right away* is the opposite of *now*? Can you share a personal story of a time you became aware of the need to step away from *right away* and step into *now*? What helps you protect yourself from turning into a “hungry ghost?” |
| david doane wrote: ‘Right away’ is rushing to get tasks done, frenetically being goal-directed and in the future, frenetically doing. Being now is truly being in the present, goal-lessly and purposelessly, aware… |
| Kristin Pedemonti wrote: For me, Right away has a sense of urgency whereas now has a feeling of peacefulness. When I was in Belize traveling village to village learning and sharing stories as part of my literacy projec… |
| Jagdish P Dave wrote: Most of the time we live not right now and not right here, in the flow of the present moment. We follow our habitual and conditioned patterns of living there and then, caught up in t… |
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Editor’s note: Have you ever had seemingly well-intentioned family and friends feel they are being kind by giving helpful "suggestions" at times of difficulty? On the receiving side, their helpful suggestions might not feel so helpful. When helping a friend or loved one during difficult times, sometimes the kindest act is just listening and giving them a quiet space to heal. And yet this can be much harder for our active society since we often feel like we must "do" something helpful, rather than just being a silent, loving, constant and patient presence. -Ameeta
Sangha of Auspicious Companions 