Now. Here. This.
This is the title of an Off Broadway production. I have not seen the production and really know nothing of what it is about. I was however fascinated by the title.
If spoken and not read it would be easy to assume that the word here in it is the word hear, as in to listen. However, the actual word is here, as in a location. If spoken it may not be obvious that these are three distinct words denoting time, space, and object all relating to one another.
In Buddhism we say that only this present moment is real and the only thing we have to work with. It is in this moment that all of the past comes together and it is in this moment that the future is born. There is only now.
The Lotus Sutra teaches us that this place in which we exist, here, is where the Buddha Land is manifest. There is no other place separate from this place to find the Buddha Land.
This life, this moment, this place, is where we manifest our enlightenment. It is not necessary for us to live in another time, to be in another moment, or to be something else. In this moment we can manifest the enlightened life.
Of course the challenge to each of us is to not just believe it is a possibility but to actually so fully embrace it with our lives that we call it from the depths of our selves.
“Every Buddha vows at the outset: ‘I will cause all living beings to attain the same enlightenment that I attained.’” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter II)
“This is the abode of the Dharma and the position of the Dharma. The reality of the world is permanently as it is.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter II)
