I'd heard it all the time, 'Live in the moment.' But if I did that, I'd weigh more than a dump truck. Losing weight wasn't about the moment at all; it was about having faith in the future. It was about knowing there would be another meal in a few hours.
-- Stephanie Klein
Yes, "live in the Now" was a hugely popular mental and spiritual admonishment in the noughties. But I never really understood why it was.
For one thing, "Now" is just another part of Time. You're still validating the falsehood of time.
For another thing, how do you do it? It's all very easy to say "stop worrying about the past and future, just live in the Now", but how do you do it? I find it hard to believe that many people have been able to go from gut-wrenching worry to peaceful relaxation by simply remembering to "live in the Now".
Someone somewhere is attributed as quoting two important rules applicable here: something along the lines of:-
ReplyDelete1/ 'Don't fret over the small stuff'
2/ 'Within the big picture, it's ALL small stuff .....'
Works well for me: I worry about stuff IF I need to, WHEN I need to, rather heading towards insanity by worrying about everything that MIGHT go wrong, ALL of the time.
So far, in more than 50 years I've perhaps been fortunate, but the maxim has served me very well indeed ... you just need the mental strength to grasp the concept and adhere to it! :-)
Now is not just another moment in time. It's the only moment you control.
ReplyDelete"Live in the now" doesn't mean ignoring the lessons of the past or hopes and expectations of the future. You take hold of now precisely because you care about the future.
You can, and should, make long-term plans for major goals, such as losing weight or making a fortune, but those plans are wasted effort unless you make the choice, in an infinite series of "now" moments, to stay on the plan.
You can decide to stop smoking with all the will in the world, but it's now, at the moment you're tempted to light up, that your success or failure is determined. Don't worry about resisting temptation for the next fifty years; resist it this one moment, and take the next moment when it comes. Don't worry if you gave in to temptation last time; now is the only moment you control. Make the right decision in enough "now" moments, and the next fifty years will take care of itself.
Yeah, fair enough.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to me that you constantly need these basic concepts explained to you. It says a lot for the Danish education system.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm sure American school children are taught Buddhistic life principles.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of "live in the now" has been widely known for a long time now. People might not know where it came from - though I doubt it's from Buddhism - but they understand it easily. The legendary laziness of the Danes clearly extends to their thinking as well.
ReplyDeleteYou're still validating the falsehood of time.
ReplyDeleteTime is not a falsehood. Even though other parts of consciousness do not experience time, we do have it here. Time is what gives physicality its solidness.
If you experience it, it is. And if it is, it can not be a falsehood.
For another thing, how do you do it?
You keep your attention in what's happening now. You do not ponder about the past, nor worry about the future.
It is a trivial thing to do. For example, whenever you experience a flow state you can be sure that your attention is in the now.
Doing it consistently, however, is difficult. You practice by moving your attention back to now whenever you catch it wandering. I find that practice does gradually make you better at this.
Why strive to live in the now? There are many reasons, but one is that you get more time. Not in some imaginary sense, but in a very concrete sense. Whenever you do not have your attention in the now, you have basically lost that moment.
As a child we had no past events to recall and little concept of the future, so most of the time we lived in the now. This made our days seem endless.
The REAL wisdon to retain from that expression, is "stop living solely in the Past (like the Lebanese) or the Future (like credit-addicted Westerners), and remember to also enjoy life NOW, or you'll waste it all".
ReplyDeleteI concur with Philocalist: all the bad things that ever happened to me in my life (not too many nor too bad, thankfully!) were things that I could NOT have anticipated, proving that I was most right to not bother worrying about all the "possible hazards" that never DID happen.
Sixteen years under the cannon fire in Lebanon, and not a SCRATCH from it! Not even when I unwittingly walked across that unsignaled minefield. By the time you worry about that stray bullet you've heard whistling by, it's long missed you, be it by 100 feet or half an inch. (10 feet, in my case. I've kept the bullet as a souvenir. }:-)
One thing IS guaranteed about the Now and the Future: living in worry will shorten your life, AND ruin all its enjoyment for you. Sure, BE responsible and sensible, but not a worrywart.
(Or, in Lebanon, a "worry-war"!) ;-p
Every time I fall sick, I "live in the Now" according to Michael's advice: be patient, and know it will all end soon enough. A most comforting thought.
I'm quite good at being patient. :-)
When it's useful! If you start toying with me and stepping on my toes looking for trouble, trouble and me will find you sooner than you'd expect, catching your bullying habits off-guard.
"Yeah, I'm sure American school children are taught Buddhistic life principles."
Hunh? Really? Wow! I didn't know that. Fascinating. ;-)
Anon #2,
"The legendary laziness of the Danes"? Clearly you haven't watched their national team playing in the World Cup. :-)
The Dutch are even more impressive: they just qualified for the Finals, and after a most impressive game! GO, ORANJES!
ttl said...
"Time is not a falsehood."
No later than YESTERDAY, I saw the opposite statement on the cover of a scientific magazine:
"TIME MAY NOT EXIST
Scientists are suggesting to do without it."
The Laws of Physics can attest of the existence of DURATIONS, but the very existence of Time itself remains an ever-debated philosophical concept. Even Einstein (who proved it was very relative) never theorized any "chronal force particles".
So, let's keep an open mind... for NOW! ;-)
"If you experience it, it is. And if it is, it can not be a falsehood."
Here's an experience for you: an hour with a hot babe will seem like a minute. A minute on a hot stove will seem like an hour. :-D
Anybody can experience cold. But cold is merely ABSENCE of heat. (BTW, that anecdote about a young Einstein silencing his atheist schoolteacher is merely an urban legend.) What we define as "neutral" temperature is in fact the one we're most used to, biologically. We naturally become oblivious to MANY sensory input signals, because their receptors are called "the on/off type", and they react to CHANGE. Such as most background noise, at the level of the brain itself. Perception, itself, is likely to be an illusion. Like all information, it CAN be false. Potentially. Ask any politician. :-P
Hate. Hate is a very powerful drive, yet it is merely a total absence of love. Maybe we humans simply think too much for our own good, sometimes. The indifference of animals for anything that proves un-threatening to them is the sign of some very deep atavistic wisdom. Perhaps at the biological level.
Especially those who live in the Snow! (^_^)
The REAL wisdon to retain from that expression, is "stop living solely in the Past (like the Lebanese) or the Future (like credit-addicted Westerners), and remember to also enjoy life NOW, or you'll waste it all".
ReplyDeleteI concur with Philocalist: all the bad things that ever happened to me in my life (not too many nor too bad, thankfully!) were things that I could NOT have anticipated, proving that I was most right to not bother worrying about all the "possible hazards" that never DID happen.
Sixteen years under the cannon fire in Lebanon, and not a SCRATCH from it! Not even when I unwittingly walked across that unsignaled minefield. By the time you worry about that stray bullet you've heard whistling by, it's long missed you, be it by 100 feet or half an inch. (10 feet, in my case. I've kept the bullet as a souvenir. }:-)
One thing IS guaranteed about the Now and the Future: living in worry will shorten your life, AND ruin all its enjoyment for you. Sure, BE responsible and sensible, but not a worrywart.
(Or, in Lebanon, a "worry-war"!) ;-p
Every time I fall sick, I "live in the Now" according to Michael's advice: be patient, and know it will all end soon enough. A most comforting thought.
I'm quite good at being patient. :-)
When it's useful! If you start toying with me and stepping on my toes looking for trouble, trouble and me will find you sooner than you'd expect, catching your bullying habits off-guard.
"Yeah, I'm sure American school children are taught Buddhistic life principles."
Hunh? Really? Wow! I didn't know that. Fascinating. ;-)
Anon #2,
"The legendary laziness of the Danes"? Clearly you haven't watched their national team playing in the World Cup. :-)
The Dutch are even more impressive: they just qualified for the Finals, and after a most impressive game! GO, ORANJES!
ttl said...
"Time is not a falsehood."
No later than YESTERDAY, I saw the opposite statement on the cover of a scientific magazine:
"TIME MAY NOT EXIST
Scientists are suggesting to do without it."
The Laws of Physics can attest of the existence of DURATIONS, but the very existence of Time itself remains an ever-debated philosophical concept. Even Einstein (who proved it was very relative) never theorized any "chronal force particles".
So, let's keep an open mind... for NOW! ;-)
"If you experience it, it is. And if it is, it can not be a falsehood."
Here's an experience for you: an hour with a hot babe will seem like a minute. A minute on a hot stove will seem like an hour. :-D
Anybody can experience cold. But cold is merely ABSENCE of heat. (BTW, that anecdote about a young Einstein silencing his atheist schoolteacher is merely an urban legend.) What we define as "neutral" temperature is in fact the one we're most used to, biologically. We naturally become oblivious to MANY sensory input signals, because their receptors are called "the on/off type", and they react to CHANGE. Such as most background noise, at the level of the brain itself. Perception, itself, is likely to be an illusion. Like all information, it CAN be false. Potentially. Ask any politician. :-P
Hate. Hate is a very powerful drive, yet it is merely a total absence of love. Maybe we humans simply think too much for our own good, sometimes. The indifference of animals for anything that proves un-threatening to them is the sign of some very deep atavistic wisdom. Perhaps at the biological level.
Especially those who live in the Snow! (^_^)
You must have loved that post so much you posted it twice, P-04! Talk about loving the sound of your own voice...or the sight or your own typed words. Whatever!;-)
ReplyDeleteClearly you haven't watched their national team playing in the World Cup. :-)
The Dutch are even more impressive: they just qualified for the Finals, and after a most impressive game! GO, ORANJES!
The Dutch have been impressive, considering how small a population they have. Denmark also is small but I doubt many have been wowed by their performance. Still, it's impressive that they made it in at all.
I don't follow the sport, and from what I've seen of it on TV they film it in a way that gives the viewer the feeling of being in the nosebleed section. I have a small (20") TV, so maybe it's different if you've got a big screen plasma or something.
Bah, Blogger is conspiring to make me look bad by seemingly being vain (even MORE than I really am, that is!). Check the times: it got posted twice at the exact same moment.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's true: if Time didn't exist, everything would be happening at once... and it did! ;-)
Big Bay-B Blogger also seems to not always recognize its own word verifs lately... And WTF happened to the "keep me signed in" option???
Really, I hope nobody was too annoyed by the (admittedly majestic) echo. My apologies... for the other guy's mistake! ;-)
Even Einstein (who proved it was very relative) never theorized any "chronal force particles".
ReplyDeleteBut neither did he theorize about "space marker particles" implementing the first three dimensions.
If time is a falsehood, then space arrangement must also be a falsehood.
You can of course take the position that everything we experience is a falsehood, but that leads to a meaningless recursive loop.
It's not a question of "keeping an open mind". Time is a solved problem. There's nothing mysterious about it anymore.