If there were no Consciousness, it would be impossible to know there even is a Present. Take away Consciousness and it could not be said there is any Present, any existing at all. Equally, if there were no Present, nothing would be present, not even Consciousness.
Consciousness and the Present are not two separate entities functioning simultaneously. They are but two different words for the One Unchanging Conscious Presence which is All There Is.
It cannot be overemphasized that the Present being spoken of is not just “the” Present or “a” Present. It is the conscious Present.
The Present is this alive conscious Presence here and now alive to being all the Presence existent. This Conscious Presence never is something You can be conscious of, as if It were something separate, because You are Consciousness Itself. In the same way, You never can be conscious of the Present. You are the Present. To read as if this refers merely to “a” Present, as something apart from this Presently Alive Consciousness, will make this book seem like just so many dry, boring words. Be alive as the Present. It’s the only place Your Life is.
The Present is not something separate that You experience.
The Present is You—All-Present Consciousness.
All that is present, is You.
When was the last time you noticed the Present was not present? Of course, it sounds ridiculous because it simply doesn’t occur.
Where the Present is present (and It is absolutely all the Presence there is), there simply cannot be an absence of the Present.
Time pretends to be that period when the Present is not present. But that never happens.
To have time in any way, the Present would have to be made to go away, or be uprooted from being everywhere present, all Presence. In other words, the Omnipresent Present would have to be shoved aside, so time, what-never-is-present, could be present. That is just plain impossible.
Only the Present is present, and endlessly so. That means complete, total “coverage” as All. This never changes.
Look at it another way. There simply is no point at which the Present comes to an end, and where what-isn’t-present, or time, could begin. What isn’t present can’t begin anywhere, because it isn’t present!
The Present Awareness I Am can’t exist in time. The Present I Am is not surrounded by, or between, past and future. As the Present is absolutely all that can be present, It leaves only Itself, and no past or future anywhere to be between!
Present Awareness stands alone.
The answer to the question, “What is the Present to Its own Presence?” also is the answer to, What is All? Who am I?
Only the Present is real, for only the Present really is.
Then only the Present can be Reality, for the Present is all that is present to be Reality.
Simply nothing else is present to be Reality.
One thus can see why this book does not constantly quote other sources, use references, and is not written in a “scholarly” style. It is not due to being intellectually irresponsible—but because all such material would be information gathered-in-time; such writing is intended only for human thinking which functions wholly in never-present time, and is not the Pure Conscious Present I Am. All would-be activity of human thinking or the intellect never really is, thus never is real, or Reality.
An intellect is not the proper “equipment” for discerning Reality, the un-intellectual pure Conscious Presence I Am.
