Salty Booger
Royal Crown Cola (RC)
Is there anything to be gained by living in the past or the future? It is all happening right now.
Photo by Andrey Grushnikov from Pexels
Photo by Andrey Grushnikov from Pexels
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Past, Future, Present?
- Thread starter Salty Booger
- Start date
I was going to post that I was living in the now, but in as long as it took me to type this, the now I was in is in the past.
Secret Chief
nirvana is samsara
One can't actually live in the past or in the future. Living can only ever take place in the now. Except possibly in Arkansas.
Secret Chief
nirvana is samsara
Learn to type then.
I did. It's just "the" with an "n" at the end.
exchemist
Veteran Member
Anyone who tries, literally, to live only in the present will be unable to function as a human being - or even as an animal.
The present, by definition, is momentary. It is only possible to make sense of perceptions by the joining together of successive moments, so that patterns can be discerned. To do that, you need to have a memory of the immediate past and - if you have any intelligence - you then use that pattern to predict what is about to happen next.
In this way you can see that a vehicle is travelling down the road and that, if you cross in front of it, you may get hit by it. In this way, you can work out that, if you fill a kettle with water and switch it on, you will a bit later have hot water for making a cup of tea. And so on.
Living only in the present is a nonsense.
Not sure now exists... Look there it goes
Secret Chief
nirvana is samsara
Perhaps we are looking at it in a different way. I'm not denying memories or planning. One doesn't "try" to live in the present, that is where we live. It is the only place available. It is now and it is eternal. imo.
exchemist
Veteran Member
Well I suppose you can say that existence, strictly speaking, only takes place in the present. But when people talk of "living", I take that to imply how we experience existence.
joe1776
Well-Known Member
Well, certainly we can only live in the present. However, the most useful kind of thinking is about the future. We call people who do it habitually "visionaries."
Secret Chief
nirvana is samsara
There, I knew it was just a few words.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Yes. My past taught me (and is teaching me) how to connect with family. It taught me ways I can take care of myself now that I'm healthier. My past is foundation.
My future, I don't really have a vision or direction. So, my present is to live my values, be in prayer, and just be me. I do want to have a vision but Im not really a stay motivated person. Working on that.
Not sure how to separate the three. I don't even think there is a present moment just fleeting past/future, one timeline and we can either learn from it and find direction or jump to one thing to the next trying to keep time still.
Salty Booger
Royal Crown Cola (RC)
Yet you are always there...in the now.
I bet you can't measure the now
Salty Booger
Royal Crown Cola (RC)
What would be the point of measuring infinity?
What would be the point of measuring infinity?
Is now infinite? Surely it is not, looking backwards is past, looking forward is future, the point where they meet, the now, is so small it cannot be measured, so small it doesn't exist . But perhaps infinitesimal is more accurate although that too indicates a period of time.
We can review past mistakes and plan out future decisions/actions which will hopefully turn out better results.
Review the past, plan the future but live in neither.
IMO, our subconscious mind lives in the now, our conscious awareness lives in the past, even if the past was only a half-second ago.
To live in the now, one has to let go of the self. I don't mean to sound esoteric but that is the reality of what I experience.