Living in the now has at least three
meanings.
1. It can mean not being mired in the past.
2. It can mean being spontaneous and free.
3. It can mean consciously focusing on what
is before you.
All of these meanings apply.
But there is another meaning that does not apply.
It cannot mean ignoring the future.
But there is another meaning that does not apply.
It cannot mean ignoring the future.
The only attention to the future that is
inappropriate
is blindness to where we are at present.
Otherwise, everything that happens in the now
has no choice but to be germane to the future.
is blindness to where we are at present.
Otherwise, everything that happens in the now
has no choice but to be germane to the future.
The summons to live in the now
is primarily an effort to correct the tendency
to live in the past, to be captive to memory,
to ignore what is here at the moment,
under our noses.
If there is any form of reality that is clearly not here now,
it is the past.
is primarily an effort to correct the tendency
to live in the past, to be captive to memory,
to ignore what is here at the moment,
under our noses.
If there is any form of reality that is clearly not here now,
it is the past.
To be sure, there is a good deal of conscious
effort
to keep the past alive.
The 9/11 observances are examples.
We cannot shrug off either horrendous tragedies
or wonderful memories.
But to cling to things that we need
to move beyond
is no recipe for happiness or progress.
to keep the past alive.
The 9/11 observances are examples.
We cannot shrug off either horrendous tragedies
or wonderful memories.
But to cling to things that we need
to move beyond
is no recipe for happiness or progress.
A wickedly painful divorce.
Filled with recrimination.
Fraught with consequences for children.
We have all been there in our own lives
or in the lives of those we love.
When do we begin to control memory
to the point that it does not paralyze?
Filled with recrimination.
Fraught with consequences for children.
We have all been there in our own lives
or in the lives of those we love.
When do we begin to control memory
to the point that it does not paralyze?
It is true that time works to dim sad
memories.
But not always.
Better to have at your beck and call
a way to modify the effect of memories
that continue to stop you in your tracks.
That way is to interpose an INDEX
into your two-step thought process.
Instead of painful memory
and a morose response,
a painful memory, an INDEX of options
and a free response..
But not always.
Better to have at your beck and call
a way to modify the effect of memories
that continue to stop you in your tracks.
That way is to interpose an INDEX
into your two-step thought process.
Instead of painful memory
and a morose response,
a painful memory, an INDEX of options
and a free response..
That index is crucial.
It's a list.
It might well include some very personal needs:
learning to clear your mind,
seeking a text to recite that snaps you out
of your preoccupation,
seeking help.
It's a list.
It might well include some very personal needs:
learning to clear your mind,
seeking a text to recite that snaps you out
of your preoccupation,
seeking help.
Or your list could remind you
of good values and action avenues
that are there in profusion if one seeks them.
of good values and action avenues
that are there in profusion if one seeks them.
It really is now or never.
Either break out or spend another day
locked in some iteration of memory,
some block, some sad cave, some inhibition.
Almost everyone who has snapped out
of something can remember
when that freeing event took place.
Something happened. Everything changed.
The point of consciously living in the now
is to increase the number of such moments.
We need more and more now actions
that represent progress
both for ourselves and for the whole planet.
Either break out or spend another day
locked in some iteration of memory,
some block, some sad cave, some inhibition.
Almost everyone who has snapped out
of something can remember
when that freeing event took place.
Something happened. Everything changed.
The point of consciously living in the now
is to increase the number of such moments.
We need more and more now actions
that represent progress
both for ourselves and for the whole planet.
¶
The
"now" would be unimportant
if this was a nominalist universe,
say that of Descartes.
If our thinking was the only validation
we had of our existence,
we would have no way of explaining
commonality, love, resonance,
simultaneous thoughts, harmonies we create,
bumps we experience,
our inherited past
or anything else that suggests reality
beyond our perception of it.
if this was a nominalist universe,
say that of Descartes.
If our thinking was the only validation
we had of our existence,
we would have no way of explaining
commonality, love, resonance,
simultaneous thoughts, harmonies we create,
bumps we experience,
our inherited past
or anything else that suggests reality
beyond our perception of it.