Beyond Time: From Presence to the Unnamable

 

Introduction

In many spiritual traditions, the idea of "being in the now" or abiding in "presence" is considered the gateway to liberation. And rightly so. Presence dismantles the illusion of past and future and draws attention to the only place where life truly unfolds. But for the sincere seeker who dares to go beyond even subtle attachments, a radical insight emerges: Even the now must be let go.

This article is a journey. from the illusion of time, through the freedom of presence, and finally, into that which cannot be named.

 Reality is Now

Let us begin with a simple, elegant truth

I = Desire = Becoming = Change = Time

Where there is a sense of "I," there is something to preserve or achieve. This births desire. Desire fuels becoming. Becoming brings change. And change constructs time. Thus, time is not a background reality. Time is the product of craving, identity, and perception.

When this movement ends, time ends. What remains?

Now

But not a moment — rather, the collapse of movement toward elsewhere. The seeing of this is what many call presence.

  

 Presence: The Gateway and the Trap

In presence:

• The future loses its pull.
• The past releases its grip.
• The present becomes luminous.

This is not a concept. It is energetic non-resistance. Thought slows. Identity loosens. Awareness rests in its own reflection.

And yet — if you look carefully:

• Who is being present?
• Who is aware of the now?

Often, there remains a subtle observer, a refined self, silently affirming: "I am here. I am aware. I am being."

This too is duality. The self has not been destroyed — only polished. Presence, then, becomes a more spacious room in the same house.

 

Presence Must Also Go

The final illusion is this:

Presence is still a position.

It is still a state. It is still a reference point. It is still something being perceived.

And anything perceived is not absolute.

To cling to presence is to cling to a concept of liberation. To abide in now is to unknowingly dwell in a refined echo of self.

True freedom arises when even the now is seen as:

• Constructed
• Experienced
• And ultimately, unnecessary

 

 What Remains When Now Is Gone?

There is no collapse. There is no drama. There is no mystical explosion.

Just the quiet vanishing of the need to locate oneself. No identity. No timelessness. No present moment. Not even emptiness.

 

 

No stance.

Just this — before the word "this" arises.

 

Conclusion: The End of Becoming

Time arises from the illusion of self. Presence is the undoing of time. But liberation is not presence — it is the absence of the need for any position at all.

In the deepest seeing, there is no seeker, no time, no now. And therefore — nothing to be bound. Nothing to be freed.

Only the natural freedom that has always been but was never noticed — because even the noticing belonged to time.

When even now has dissolved, you are not in anything — you simply are not. And this, at last, is peace.