Past. Present & Future Mental Exercise
1. Focus on the presentBe fully and completely focused on your immediate awareness of the moment NOW.
Mentally assess your degree of certainty that you are experiencing the moment NOW.
2. Focus on the past
Unlike your awareness of the present, you have to draw from your memory for this.
Think of an incident that you experienced yesterday. Mentally assess your degree of certainty that you experienced that incident.
Think of an incident that you experienced a year ago. Mentally assess your degree of certainty that you experienced that incident.
3. Focus on the future
Unlike your awareness of the present, you have to draw from your imagination for this.
Think of something you plan to do tomorrow. Mentally assess your degree of certainty that you will be able to do what you plan.
Think of something you plan to do a year from now. Mentally assess your degree of certainty that you will be able to do what you plan.
How does your degree of certainty for each of these compare with that for the others?
I believe you will experience the greatest degree of certainty for the present (of course, I may not be correct).
If I am, then it appears that we are most certain of the reality of the present compared to that of the past and the future.
Could it be that the present, or more specifically the moment NOW, is all that there actually IS?
We have a direct and immediate awareness that we are in the present, the here and the NOW, and we do not need memory or imagination to be aware of this.
However, the moment NOW is not a static entity but it is dynamic and it is this quality of dynamism or change that gives rise to the notions of the past and the future.
From our memory, we get a notion of the past and from our imagination, we get a notion of the future.
The Taoists speak of the ETERNAL NOW.
Albert Einstein said:
"Time is an illusion."
I have written two pieces of Haiku on this theme:
the moment NOW
untiring trailmaker
and in its wake - CHANGE
the moment NOW
the supreme cosmic force
in eternal birth
Comments (11)
"Remember to stay in the moment.
Yesterday is only today´s memory,
Tomorrow just today´s dream.
The moment is NOW"
Have a good day
I think you have summed up the gist of this blog very nicely, and have given valuable advice that we should stay in the moment which is NOW. Have a nice day!
It is your right to focus on whoever and whatever you choose.
Thanks for your comment. I wonder why you do not allow others to comment on some of your blogs but you are very active in commenting on the blogs of others. Have a great day!
I am glad that you enjoyed the Haiku.
I agree with the points you made although I do not understand how (4) came in.
I asked the question based on the position of modern science on the nature of time:
Also, some forms of meditation like Zen "mindfulness" involves focusing on the present and the moment NOW.
Thanks for the link and yes I understand about meditation. But when you try too hard for something sometimes it just does not happen. So these days I have different ways to reach what can I say in touch with all.
Sorry I do not mock but just have a more light hearted view of things even be they a serious matter.
Its at times like these I wish I could express things better, what is deep within me.
Thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog. I value your input greatly.
"eternity - time without an end"
"now - at the present time"
(Merriam Webster)
Based on the above definitions,
eternity consists of time (endless time).
now is a point in time (the present)
Time is normally viewed as a continuum.
In everyday language, "time" is taken to be either:
(1) a specific point in this continuum, e.g, 9.00 am, or
(2) a portion(period) of this continuum, e.g., there is 1 hour of time between 9.00 am and 10.00 am.
"now" refers to a specific point in the continuum, i.e., the present moment.
Re case (1), i.e., 9.00 am, "now" refers specifically to that particular moment and there is only one "now".
Re case (2), the statement "now of the hour between 9.00 am and 10.00 am, is ambiguous since there are may "nows", in fact, an infinite number of "nows" in that period of time.
The statement "the now of eternity" is an example of case (2), making it ambiguous so I am not clear what it means.
The term "eternal now", as I have used it, is not concerned with any quantity of time. It simply refers to a specific moment. The focus is on the moment. It is related to a practice in meditation to focus the mind.
It is interesting that the Taoists used the term "eternal now" thousands of years ago in China. It seems that modern science is now beginning to realise its validity. See the following for one such report entitled " Time may not exist":
There are several such articles.
Once again, thank you for your comments. Have a nice day!
I did not think you were mocking. I was simply puzzled. I am quite aware of your light-hearted view of things at times, and of your sense of humour which is good.
Have a wonderful day!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge, in regards to time. However, I do not hold eternity to be endless time. Lol.
Eternity does not mean time without an end (endless time).
For an infinite number of moments is impossible. If an infinite number of moments occurred before today, then today would never have come, since it is impossible to traverse an infinite number of moments (yet time up to today has been traversed).
There is no end of an infinite, but today is the end of all previous moments. Today has arrived, hence, an infinite number of moments could not have occurred before today. Eternality means nontemporaity or time-lessness.
In distinguishing eternity from endless time, I quote from Thomas Aquinas:
First, whatever is essentially whole is essentially different from what has parts. Eternity differs from time in this way (eternity is a Now; time has now and then); hence, eternity is essentially different from time. In other words, God's eternity is not divided; it is all present to Him in His eternal Now. So it must be essentially different from time, which comes only a moment at a time.
Second, endless time is not eternity, it is simply more of time. Eternity differs in kind from time; that is, it differs essentially, not merely accidentally, from time. Endless time differs only accidentally from time because it is only an elongation of time. Since endless time is simply time- just more of it- eternity must differ from it essentially. To state it another way, more of the same thing is essentially the same thing; therefore, endless time does not differ essentially from time.
Third, an eternal being cannot change, whereas time involves change by which the measurements of befores and afters can be made. Thus an eternal being such as God cannot change.
God Bless!
I wish to restate the following:
Re case(2), the statement "now of the hour between 9.00 am and 10.00 am, is ambiguous since there are many "nows", in fact, an infinite number of "nows" in that period of time.
as:
Re case (2), the statement "now of the hour between 9.00 am and 10.00 am , is ambiguous since there are many "nows" or moments in that period.
This is sufficient to make my point.
The extension should have been: , in fact, the number of "nows" would be inversely proportional to the size or duration of a "now" or moment. The number of "nows" would tend to infinity as the duration of a "now" tends to zero.
I stand by what I have written otherwise.
The main question is "What is the nature of time?"
There appears to be a lot of ambiguity on this issue and this seems to be colouring your position.