Being in the moment or the same, living in the here and the now, in various forms, is offered in Zen circles and elsewhere as some kind of panacea. But in truth, it ain't. The moment or the here and the now is nothing more than raw sense certainty. The “here” is a place or locus. More precisely, it is the site of my body. The “now” or this “moment” is about time. But what exactly is time? Time is nothing but the measurement of change. Putting this altogether, the moment or the here and now boils down to this: my body is undergoing change. Taking another step, this sounds very familiar with Buddhism's impermanence (anitya) which is also samsara.

So what is so wonderful about practicing awareness of the present moment? Nothing that I can see. In fact, if you are cutting firewood with a chain saw it is better to be aware of the saw and the branch—not some abstract moment. Being aware of the present moment is being aware of samsara, a practice that is a long way from the shore of nirvana.

I can't recall the Buddha teaching such a stupid practice as learning to be in the here and the now or live moment by moment. The Buddha basically taught the many that we are in deep shit and need to crawl out of this stinking samsaric cesspit that is made up of a lot of shitty moments such as war, poverty, disease, and starvation.

On this sour note, there is no need to venerate the here and the now. Living moment by moment it not the great vehicle (mahayana) or the one vehicle (ekayana). It is rebirth’s wagon that leads to more samsara and suffering. Those who teach it, I suspect, work for Mara the Evil One (you know that dude—he’s the Buddhist devil who is a personification of mortality).