Being present in the Now becomes the object of the mind when its value is recognized. As a result, the mind begins its quest to "achieve presence", to "learn to live in the now" as if it were just another mind activity. Over the decades we spend in our heads the belief that our mind must be a party to whatever state or activity becomes "our truth". The notion that the mind could be left out and we would exit without it is (almost) unimaginable. Yet this is the very thing one must accept - leaving the mind out of the equation - when one stops leaving the present moment. Yes, leaving. We do not arrive at the Now, we stop leaving it through mind activity that is nothing more than pure imagination. Whether what we conceive of through our minds resembles "some reality" or not, it always is a distant derivative of true reality, Truth. Just like a tasty meal can only be experienced by the palate and never through its conceptual description (e.g. text on a menu), reality can only be lived without the reductionist, divisve activity of thought. Therefore, living in the Now is being free from thought, cultivating a mental silence so pure that it even makes one question what the word "mind" really means. Just a bundle of thoughts? Being free from thought does not mean not having any thoughts, ever. Silence dawns when thought loses its might and becomes no more than a servant of the ever present "I". "I am" is truth, and anchored in this realization one may even allow thought to create glimpses of illusion and not get lost again.