Living in the present. Something we all aspire to achieve. We try to do everything in our power to make ourselves able to live in the present, don't we? I mean, we work hard, save up, try to buy things that we want, etc. These things don't always seem to help with living in the present.
We strive to achieve control in all situations - including the ones where we want and try desperately to live in the present. Yet, our mind is typically lost either in thinking about the days past or yet to come. It is a very interesting conundrum.
One of the most important reasons for our dissatisfaction is our illusion of control over everything. With an illusion of control, an illusion of power, an illusion of success, we recursively apply infinite boundaries and restrictions on our abilities to think, create and realize. Our ability to think and understand lies within. Our ability to think and create lies within. Our ability to realize the magnificent beauty of the universe lies within. Yet, all we crave for, are meaningless, tangible inadequacies. Artifacts that add no value to our soul, while suffocating it with our efforts to acquire.
Tangible things we look for in the world are only means to accomplish various things in our life; including spiritual pursuits. Nothing more, nothing less. Only means to something.
Our problems begin with us attaching meaning to everything in life - including artifacts we acquire. Instead of simply looking at them as things that assist us with what we do, our perception - "this is my item" - leads us to attach incredible, and often unnecessary, meaning to such tangible artifacts.
When every artifact in our possession has some meaning attached to them, it is natural for us to have trouble giving them up. This, unfortunately, also implies that we have trouble moving on because we end up spending an unnecessary amount of time thinking about artifacts that have meaning.
We also have the "this is mine" attachment towards other people, animals, and even to memories. This of course, forms the core reason why we have social connections and why we have such societal structures.
With everything - people, artifacts, memories - linked in an amazing manner, we are reminded of our past (and related actions) when we carry on living, for nearly each activity has a related instance in our past, and of the future when we get busy planning to make our existence just a little more better.
This leaves us with little to no time for living in the present. Living in the now, as it is sometimes referred to, requires us to think or spend our energy thinking about the current moment. Nothing beyond or nothing prior. Can we live like this? Yes, it is possible. Would it cause us to be labeled/branded by others? Of course, as it is always the case.
I guess the place to start is to think about living in a manner that does not affect others directly, and that does not hurt others as we do so. The links described earlier in this article makes it incredibly challenging to live in the present in a way that does not affect others - but, it is not impossible.
We have to begin by acknowledging our past actions - they are the reasons why we are the way we are today. There is nothing we can do to change them. We also have to acknowledge that right now we are in the moment which can change our lives for the better. The power to change is in our mind. We have to acknowledge this ability.
The future, well, is something we cannot control. The same links described in this article have the ability to change the future in a manner totally beyond our control. Think about this example scenario - you are in charge of an activity and you have paid attention to every little detail. But on the day before the activity there is a power outage and the generators ran out after a day. Was that in your control? No.
Once we acknowledge our past actions, we have to proceed to acknowledge that our future is beyond our control. The consequences of our current actions could be something small or catastrophic - but these are beyond our control. We have to acknowledge that it is not pure control, but merely an illusion of control, which is not valuable. It holds us back in our lives, because we measure each moment by our ability to control it. Valuable energy wasted.
When we have acknowledged both these, we begin to sense a bit of freedom in thoughts. The chance to think a bit more about today, about this moment. So, although we are able to acknowledge the past and plan for the future, we begin to live in the present.
It is not a straightforward process - not an easy one. It takes time and energy. It takes conscious effort on our part. Slowly, but steadily, we begin to live in the present; finding a solution to our past-present-future conundrum.
What should motivate us, though, is the possibility to live in a manner that does not harm others, and gives us hope for a happy and peaceful future.
We strive to achieve control in all situations - including the ones where we want and try desperately to live in the present. Yet, our mind is typically lost either in thinking about the days past or yet to come. It is a very interesting conundrum.
One of the most important reasons for our dissatisfaction is our illusion of control over everything. With an illusion of control, an illusion of power, an illusion of success, we recursively apply infinite boundaries and restrictions on our abilities to think, create and realize. Our ability to think and understand lies within. Our ability to think and create lies within. Our ability to realize the magnificent beauty of the universe lies within. Yet, all we crave for, are meaningless, tangible inadequacies. Artifacts that add no value to our soul, while suffocating it with our efforts to acquire.
Our problems begin with us attaching meaning to everything in life - including artifacts we acquire. Instead of simply looking at them as things that assist us with what we do, our perception - "this is my item" - leads us to attach incredible, and often unnecessary, meaning to such tangible artifacts.
When every artifact in our possession has some meaning attached to them, it is natural for us to have trouble giving them up. This, unfortunately, also implies that we have trouble moving on because we end up spending an unnecessary amount of time thinking about artifacts that have meaning.
We also have the "this is mine" attachment towards other people, animals, and even to memories. This of course, forms the core reason why we have social connections and why we have such societal structures.
With everything - people, artifacts, memories - linked in an amazing manner, we are reminded of our past (and related actions) when we carry on living, for nearly each activity has a related instance in our past, and of the future when we get busy planning to make our existence just a little more better.
This leaves us with little to no time for living in the present. Living in the now, as it is sometimes referred to, requires us to think or spend our energy thinking about the current moment. Nothing beyond or nothing prior. Can we live like this? Yes, it is possible. Would it cause us to be labeled/branded by others? Of course, as it is always the case.
I guess the place to start is to think about living in a manner that does not affect others directly, and that does not hurt others as we do so. The links described earlier in this article makes it incredibly challenging to live in the present in a way that does not affect others - but, it is not impossible.
We have to begin by acknowledging our past actions - they are the reasons why we are the way we are today. There is nothing we can do to change them. We also have to acknowledge that right now we are in the moment which can change our lives for the better. The power to change is in our mind. We have to acknowledge this ability.
The future, well, is something we cannot control. The same links described in this article have the ability to change the future in a manner totally beyond our control. Think about this example scenario - you are in charge of an activity and you have paid attention to every little detail. But on the day before the activity there is a power outage and the generators ran out after a day. Was that in your control? No.
Once we acknowledge our past actions, we have to proceed to acknowledge that our future is beyond our control. The consequences of our current actions could be something small or catastrophic - but these are beyond our control. We have to acknowledge that it is not pure control, but merely an illusion of control, which is not valuable. It holds us back in our lives, because we measure each moment by our ability to control it. Valuable energy wasted.
When we have acknowledged both these, we begin to sense a bit of freedom in thoughts. The chance to think a bit more about today, about this moment. So, although we are able to acknowledge the past and plan for the future, we begin to live in the present.
It is not a straightforward process - not an easy one. It takes time and energy. It takes conscious effort on our part. Slowly, but steadily, we begin to live in the present; finding a solution to our past-present-future conundrum.
What should motivate us, though, is the possibility to live in a manner that does not harm others, and gives us hope for a happy and peaceful future.