"There exists only the present instant... a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence"

Meister Eckhart’s words draw attention to the radical immediacy of existence. The notion that only the present instant truly exists dissolves the boundaries we typically place between past, present, and future. Time, in our habitual understanding, is a stream carrying us from what has been to what will be, yet Eckhart invites the awareness that all experience unfolds within the singular, perpetual “Now.” The past is only accessible as memory, and the future, as anticipation or imagination; neither possesses tangible reality outside of the mind’s constructions. All living, perceiving, and knowing occurs within the present.

This “Now” is relentlessly new, eternally fresh, never repeating itself. Each moment arises as a unique revelation, unmarked by the limitations of chronological duration. Such freshness reveals the futility of clinging to former experiences or yearning for future scenarios. Yesterday and tomorrow become conceptual, not real in the living sense. Presence is not merely a point on a timeline but a continually renewing state of being, where every instant stands independently, yet is united in an unending flow of nowness.

Eckhart’s insight transcends not only ordinary temporal experience but also suggests a profound sameness underlying change. A thousand years ago, those living then occupied the same living present as we do now; a thousand years from now, the present will still be that singular Now. The essence of time, the heart of awareness, remains untouched by centuries. In recognizing this, the mind might loosen its attachment to narratives of loss and expectation, settling more deeply into the vibrant immediacy of life. To rest in the Now is to experience a timelessness that both liberates and clarifies, revealing that all fulfillment, meaning, and reality reside in the ongoing miracle of present experience, perpetually reborn, endlessly itself.