Attention & Focus · “You Become What You Hold”
What Is Unbearable in the Now?
To see directly that psychological suffering lives only in remembered past and imagined future, never in the bare present — by checking whether THIS actual moment, stripped of mental time, contains the problem at all.
The Now inquiry in 5 lines: The instant you notice suffering, see that your mind is in the past or future. Drop the story; bring attention to this literal instant — sensations, breath, the bare facts of now. Ask: what, in THIS now, is actually unbearable? Look at raw experience, not the narrative. Usually the “problem” was time-made and the bare present holds little or none of it. Welcome the now as it is.
What it is
Francis Lucille teaches that psychological suffering is always a movement of mind between past and future — a memory replayed or a catastrophe imagined — and almost never a property of the bare, actual present.
His practice is a pointed inquiry you run the moment you notice yourself suffering: drop the story of past and future, return attention to this literal instant, and ask whether the problem is actually here, now.
His claim, to be tested rather than believed: “If we welcome the present moment, we will discover that in the present moment there is never a problem.” The now, for Lucille, is the “bridge” from ordinary time-bound mind into timeless Presence.
The Method
From Lucille’s present-moment dialogues:
- Catch yourself suffering, and notice the time-travel. Whenever anxiety, dread, regret, or unhappiness arises, first simply notice that the mind is somewhere in time — rehearsing a future (“what if…”) or replaying a past (“if only…”). The suffering rides on that mental movement.
- Drop the storyline and return to this instant. Deliberately let go of the imagined future and remembered past. Bring attention to the actual present — the sensations, sounds, breath, and bare facts of this single moment, with no story added.
- Ask the question. Pose Lucille’s inquiry directly to your immediate experience: “What, in this now — right now, this instant — is so unbearable?” Look at the raw present, not at your thoughts about it. Wait for the honest answer from experience, not from the anxious narrative.
- See what remains. The typical discovery: the content that felt unbearable was almost entirely past/future thought. The bare present — this breath, this room, this sensation — contains far less, often nothing, of the dreaded problem. The “problem” was a time-construction.
- Welcome the now as it is. Rather than merely tolerating the present, Lucille has you welcome it fully — go into it, say yes to it (his welcoming move). Welcomed, the present moment reveals it “is never a problem,” and attention is freed from the object back to the Presence that is aware.
- Notice the doorway. Resting attention in the now, without the pull of mental time, opens onto the timeless quality Lucille calls Presence or eternity — the happiness “already here,” normally hidden by our habitual rejection of what is. (Sourcing note: “What is so unbearable in the now?” and “in the present moment there is never a problem” are Lucille’s, from his present-moment dialogues. Steps are faithful paraphrase; quotes short.)
Source & Lineage
Francis Lucille roots this in the Advaita understanding that time is a mental construction and reality is the timeless present, transmitted through Jean Klein and the Atmananda direct path.
It overlaps strongly with Eckhart Tolle’s “power of Now” (independently popularised) and with Krishnamurti, whose writings first launched Lucille’s search and who taught the ending of psychological time. → (Lucille, Jean Klein, Krishnamurti).
Carried onward by Rupert Spira.
The Traditions' versions
Eckhart Tolle — “the Now” / “is there a problem right now?” — almost identical inquiry, mass-market form.
- Mindfulness (MBSR/MBCT) — present-moment attention — returning attention from rumination/worry to direct experience; the clinical backbone for anxiety and relapse prevention.
- Cognitive defusion (ACT) — seeing thoughts about the future/past as thoughts, not facts.
- Krishnamurti — ending psychological time — suffering as the continuity of memory/projection.
- Stoic premeditatio contrast — Stoics rehearse the future deliberately; Lucille does the inverse, dropping it — useful counterpoint.
- Zen — “just this” — the bare immediacy of the present act.
Common refinements
Inquiring into thoughts instead of bare experience. Asking “what’s unbearable now?” and then consulting your anxious narrative defeats it. Look at the raw present — sensations, room, breath.
- Using it to deny real present problems. If there genuinely is a present danger or acute pain, the honest answer is “this” — then act. The tool is for time-made suffering, not for dismissing facts.
- Forcing positivity. It is not “think positive”; it is “check what’s actually here.” Sometimes what’s here is a hard sensation to be welcomed, not argued away.
- One-and-done. Mental time reasserts itself constantly; the inquiry is a repeated micro-practice, re-run each time the mind time-travels.
- Skipping the welcome. Merely noticing the now while still inwardly resisting it keeps the suffering; the relief comes with the yes.