All Anandayana philosophy is based on the simple concept of the Here&Now.
The concept of the Here&Now, the basis of Buddhist philosophy, is one of the keys to shedding light on the path of happiness.
In this text, little mention of the term awareness is made; instead a term which is in certain respects analogous is used: Here&Now, which implicitly refers to an awareness applied in time and space, emphasising the importance of being alert and fully aware in the present moment (Now) and in the surrounding space (Here).
A person who is evolving spiritually will note that their own awareness diverts more and more into the "here and now": they devote less attention to the past, with its regrets, anger, sorrows, melancholy, giving increasingly less importance to things that have already happened, especially links to negative aspects of the past.
The desire to project to the future also fades, so that projects, deadlines, fears, and insecurities become ever lighter weights.
It is clear to those on a spiritual path, although difficult to put in writing, that everything that causes distraction from the Here&Now is spiritually harmful. All dispersions of time, thoughts, mental energies, emotional energies and psycho-spiritual energies to the past or the future are totally useless, if not outright harmful, as are the psycho-energetic efforts made in order to be present in spatial locations other than one's own[39].
We can see the concept of the "Yin and Yang" dualism intrinsic in Our Virtual Reality, in which the positive and the negative are intrinsic to one another: time and space were created in order to experience life in the best way -– Here&Now - but at the same time, the past, the future (“not-Now”), and the space outside of the present position (“not-Here”) are features of Our Virtual Reality itself that can cause negativity.
Only with continuous awareness of the Here&Now can an individual understand serenity along own Anandayana path; in every part of it, in every place (“here”), and in every moment (“now”).
Comprehension of serenity of Here&Now automatically leads to an understanding of how the concepts of "path" and "goal" merge: the meaning of "path to serenity" is lost, and the individual finds themselves on their own "path of serenity".
The precept of the Here&Now is the key to the success of a spiritual path, and to the development of Individual Consciousness.
As mentioned in the Socio-religious System chapter ⇒ , a populace in which individuals possess high Individual Consciousness is a population that is difficult to control. To prevent people from increasing their Individual Consciousness, society and religion have invented a very intelligent system to divert individuals from the Here&Now.
The union of religion & society instils in us the idea that we must create goals and work hard to achieve them, so that we must always be projected into the future, focused on the end goal. Society puts forward various goals, such as career promotions, the achievement of higher status, or the purchase of coveted goods, while in religion the goal is the grace of god for a pleasant post-mortem.
The only reason for the existence of a goal should be to create one or more paths, nothing more. A goal must not be the objective; the objective should be how to walk the path.
Whatever path one follows, the important thing is to find serenity in every step (Here) and at every moment (Now) of the path itself. Even if one does not reach the goal, it does not matter; you will have already obtained what you needed along the journey.
The goal is not important; what is important is the path, or rather, knowing how to walk the path according to the precept of the Here&Now.
There is nothing wrong with choosing a promotion, membership of a prestigious club, or the purchase of a new car as a goal. However, the goal must not be the objective of the journey. Depending on the chosen goal, the individual's chosen path depends on a myriad of factors: type of work, social relations, the society in which the individual is located, the commitments they have, family duties, etc... Whatever path one chooses, whether it stays the same or changes over time, nothing matters. It doesn't even matter whether we change jobs in the future, sign up for another club, or buy a motorcycle instead of a car: the goal doesn't matter. What matters is that we manage to be fully aware of the Here&Now along the way, following our Anandayana.
In contrast, the view within religious creeds differs. The concept of the Here&Now is only applicable to a few creeds. Buddhist philosophy is the largest movement to put forward this concept, but it has clearly been lost as Buddhist philosophy has become the Buddhist religion; to see this, one need only goes and sees the religious practices of majority-Buddhist countries and examine adherents' hopes for the ultimate future.
Whatever the goal of a religion, be it paradise, reincarnation, rebirth on earth, in heaven, or on another planet, the rules of the path for obtaining it are fixed, unbreakable, and identical for every individual: there is no personalised path for individual believers in the religious field. This goal is the final objective and is of primary importance, while adherents' states of mind during the journey to reach the goal are not even of secondary importance; indeed, in some creeds, the more sacrifices one makes in the form of suffering and deprivation, the better.
The word "spirituality" is rarely applicable to the religious field, and certainly, the concept of the Here&Now is even less so.
While an individual without religious belief can follow their own Anandayana inside modern society, ignoring the deceptive messages that it provides, an individual faithful to a religious creed will not be able to create their own Anandayana unless he is somehow able to modify his indoctrination, creating a form of belief that is free, flexible and adaptable to a spiritual path.
By definition, Anandayana is structurally incompatible with the typical concept of religion.