15 Minute Philosophy: The Power of Now?

"I am thoroughly irritated by this 'living in the now'" says Zen practioner and therapist Manu Bazzano.

Should be all be ‘living in the now’? Eckhart Tolle’s bestseller, ‘The Power of Now’ suggests it’s a hugely popular idea. But is it in any way realistic? Or even desirable? Manu Bazzano, Zen practitioner and therapist, has his doubts.

Full transcript of conversation underneath the paywall.

@0:05 - Tim Lott (timlott56@gmail.com)

Today we're going to talk about ‘living in the now’, which is very popular, apparently, given the sales numbers of Eckhart Tolle's book, The Power of Now, which I think  sold I don't know, 20 million copies or something.

It's clearly got a very powerful message for a lot of people.   I think Eckhart Tolle uses a lot of different …he kind of cherry picks from a lot of different spiritual traditions, but I think that the idea of ‘living in the now’ is quite connected with Zen, isn't it?

What do you and what does the Zen practice have to say about living in the present?

@0:54 - Manu Bazzano

Okay, again, I don't know if I have the official position, the Zen position on this, but I am really, really thoroughly irritated about this ‘living in now’. You know, I would go to some meditation centre, you are queuing up for your bowl of porridge, whatever, and you say to yourself, ‘remember to live in the now.’

Okay, why am I irritated about it? Okay, let's take an extreme case. The person who really lives in the now is the financial speculator, the capitalist, the sort of people who wouldn't hesitate in destroying, for example, they did in they are doing St.Pancras, a beautiful area where there are, you know, graves and the beautiful old buildings, in order to build an absolutely useless railway, because we live in the now. So, capitalism, profit, fast, fast, live fast, earn as much as you can, sell, sell, That's a great example of living in the now.

Full transcript and recording of video beneath paywall.

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