“Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be.”~Eckhart Tolle
When we adopt a “make believe” separate self or ego we also need to “make believe” in a time where we pretend to live out a personal story with a past and future… this includes the belief we should be in control of our story…and it becomes the meaning of our life.
The simple fact is that there is no such thing as future or past. There is only the “present” which is just in front of our nose. The truth is the ‘past’ is a “present” idea only in our mind. We call it a ‘memory’, and imagine that it refers to a real event in the ‘past’….but it is only imagination
The same is true for the future. We call our “present” thoughts of the future as ‘dreams’ or ‘plans’, and feel sure that they area real drawing ever closer. But our dreams and plans are nothing more than the “present” thoughts about “present” thoughts.
We can’t escape from the “present”. We’re there all the time, and no matter what we think, we’re stuck in the “present”. If we’d stop a moment and take a look at the situation, it would actually be pretty awesome. But instead, we usually spend all our present time thinking about the future and past
If we re-discover the “now”, everything changes. We don’t lose anything – we retain our motivation, our ability to make plans, our ability to dream and remember and accomplish things. What changes is our ability to realize that past and future are “make believe”, and thus it’s not likely for us to experience anxiety, stress, or frustration of what we think happened or will happen.
We all had this sense of “now” when we were very young, but lost it as we adopted our belief in a “story” time. Some people break out of this illusion and re-discover the “now”, and find that life is just as amazing as when we were young seeing the world as marvelous and magical. And that all of the problems of adulthood – all the issues that we spend our entire lives trying to resolve – aren’t real, solid problems. They are problems we are constantly creating out of our deep beliefs regarding how the world works. In the “now”. And find the meaning of life exists in the timeless “now” which most of us are so busy ignoring.
Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present, which very few of us do. ~Jean de la Bruyere
Filed under: ego problem, illusions Tagged: | awareness, ego, freedom, insight, learning, letting go, natural, nature, neuroscience, perception, present, right brain therapy, time, Timelessness
I think this is the strangest thing I’ve ever read, but it does make a lot of sense to me, and I’ll try and remember this message always
Evan
Hi Mr Sid
eggzactly
walt
Walt,
Interpretation is not a direct experience and if assumed reality,it is an illusion.
Sid
Hi mr sid
I don’t think time is really the right word to use for what’s happening in the right mind. Nor do I think everything is happening at once. Once as a concept is not really valid. It’s more of an intensity thing, a twist to our perception. Keep in mind I’m still trying to articulate this. there ain’t no words for what’s happening. I’m still working on this but am stuck at the articulation level. That means time isn’t exactly an illusion, but an interpretation of a perception. A clock now, that’s an illusion
http://keytoann.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/speedometer/
walt
Ron…In the Now there is no self,no ego,no-thing…it is only in the past-future that we live in the illusionary world…Sid
“Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is
gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back
to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch
with life.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“Life is NOW, ever NOW, never then.”
http://sillysutras.com/life-is-now-never-then/
ps sorry about the funny format of the previous answer, the edit box keeps flipping back and forth. There’s a link to SAND on my blogroll
walt
Hmm!
check out SAND (science and non-duality) out of U of Arizona. That’s exactly what they’re trying to do. Occidental’s dominate mode is top down (left mind) Orientals dominate mode is bottom up (right mind) time to the right mind appears to be situational. Orientals have the same problem (mirrored) that we have in the west. IE whereas we have difficulty with connectness (bottom up), they have problems with analysis. top down. In general this seems to be a determining factor in civilization, ie one or the other minds must be shut down to turn the populace into robots. This difference is illustrated by the response to communists. They didn’t understand the war. “a thousand years from now no one will even know who the communists were”
walt
Larry…Thanks for your challenging comment.
I wonder if we need to find a way to integrate both types of time…one invented and the other natural…one left brain and the other right brain…just as our left brain has become dominant,we tend to live in invented time and largely unaware of natural time…while natural time flows,invented time stops and goes and often blocks our natural time…it also invents life as a story which needs to be observed and controlled…but just as we need the left brain as a survival mechanism,we need the right brain to be aware of our roots in the natural world.
Sid
Sid,
The Flow state, being in the present for an extended period of time, is the homebase where we find personal freedom, peace of of mind and joy (among other attributes). While time and sequential processing of information is necessary to function in the world, over-reliance on time is a prime cause of tension and disquiet. You only have to look at New York City to see people rushing to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, even when there is nothing urgent to deal with. Despite the improved productivity of a time-oriented lifestyle,the main psychological byproduct is an adrenalin high.
There is always a choice of where one’s homebase will be: on the side of Flow, being, and peace; or on the frenetic side where there is constant awareness of time. It’s just a matter of perspective — Does time awareness aid one’s life or is it a primary goal? Can being in the moment really be our homebase such that practical matters of doing things in the world do not disturb our fundamental peace? If the questions are worth asking yourself, then the answers will tell you a lot.
Jenn,
Thanks for your very thoughtful comment….I agree time is a necessary adaptive tool,but not as a necessary belief that it is reality…if we accept it as reality,we are imprisoned in its regimented rules and demands…key to the assumption of time is that our life is a story with a beginning and end so all our efforts should be spent making it as successful as possible… not only the calendar but the clock rules our life…as a result we lose contact with the natural FLOW of the present moment…we seem to agree that experiencing FLOW is an awareness which transcend the conventional perception but it only exist in the present moment free from our self conscious observer and its obsession with the past and future.
The only reality is the state of FLOW but the adaptive tool of time needs to be used only when necessary and not 24/7.
Sid
Sid, I have pondered this whole concept often. I agree with you about time only if everyone functioned under the same concept can you sit back and let go of the illusion of time. What I mean is , that because this world has chosen to function on the illusion of time it has set up rules. This is the wrench that is constantly thrown into the spin for me;
If a child dies, they will be mourned in every present because they are not with us in the present. Yes, that is the past and just a memory in the present but it is also a pain that exists in the present and cannot be willed away.
If you have a dead line for work or school or to pay a bill, and this dead line is a precieved futured date. it will effect your present if you do not act iaccordingly in the present. So since our world is set up to function on time…..cause and effect, how can anyone truly afford not to prepare in the present for a future that doesnt exist except in our thoughts. We all know that what is done in each present effects the present that was once a predicted thought. What if I choose not to work. How does one determine what they can afford to spend money on if not base it on prediction of total cost and when in the future it will be due.
Isn’t working toward goals, bases on linier time?
I have come to the conclusion that in order to survive our human life, whether this life of ours is merely an illusion or not, we must have time. In another form, in another dimension where earthly rules on not set…yes maybe we need not need time.
Even with out a clock we still have day and night. Our body still must sleep in very real intervals . we must eat or we will starve. even cavemen had to think ahead when they killed their next meal. “if I don’t kill something soon i will starve later.”
Yes time is an illusion that in necessary for us to live in that same illusion. We as a human race can not live without time in one form or the other. If we give up the illusion of time we give up the illusion of being alive.
Maybe the present only exists because of the illusion of the past and the future. Maybe the present can only exist because of ,as opposed to, in spite of, time.
Hi sid,
Good writeup. This impels me to toss my two cent’s worth in,
http://timephreak.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/prestigitation/
walt
Thanks Walt….The picture is great !!
Hi Mr Sid
I was trying to be funny, but time is but one of a broad suite of interdependent illusions that we were given by creation/evolution/unfolding in the now that hide reality. In and of itself, thats not a bad thing. What is bad is confusing this suite of illusions for reality. This confusion, may, i fear lead to our extinction.
here’s a good wheel within wheel animated gif you can use. I can reduce it if it’s too big
http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&client=opera&rls=en&tbs=isch:1,ift:gif&aq=f&aqi=&oq=&gs_rfai=&q=animated%20astro%20clock
Walt….I think the source of our most disturbing problem is the illusion we can really measure time…our separate self or ego cannot exist without the assumption time is a reality…Sid
hi sid
have you ever wondered how much time is between one now and the next. This way lies madness.
walt