Photo by: lomoelvis
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha
Many people are so concerned with adding days to their life that they forget to add life to their days. Have you ever found yourself at home thinking about what you need to do at work, or at work thinking about things happening in your personal life? You know how distracting that is.
They say the solution for that is living in the moment; not thinking about anything else but the NOW moment in time. Just like a turntable only plays that which is under its needle and doesn’t bother with what will follow.
The past is history.
The future is a mystery.
The only time we really have is now – just this moment.
All this living in the moment talk can sound really nice, but can we really do it or is it just a rather untouchable ideal that many teachers throw our way?
In my opinion, living in the moment is quite impossible. I’ll tell you why.
Existence
Living in the moment is inevitably tied to our existence. To our being. But there is no universally accepted theory as to what the word “existence” means.
Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976), an influential German philosopher, writes in his work “Being and Time,” that time and existence are inexplicably linked. Our being, he says, is really a process of becoming.
Our existence is nothing but this stretching where we are constantly projecting ourselves into a future, always expecting things, always hoping things. We’re constantly pulled ahead of ourselves into purposes that we’re trying to fulfill, into tasks that we’re working on, into things that we want to achieve.
Think of a bus driver driving his bus. This is someone who has a future task that he’s trying to fulfill and he has a logic operating there that shows that the human being is actually extended ahead of himself.
The ahead is where we really live, what we anticipate or desire to do, what we want our lives to become is ahead of us.
The bus driver drives the bus for a future event in which he gets paid and takes his family on a vacation.
You too, while reading this, are projecting yourself into the future. Because you’re reading this with a purpose that lies ahead of you. You’re reading this trying to understand something that you think might help you in the future.
Friction
Trying to fully live in the now moment is kind of like trying to completely eliminate friction from this world.
It is, first of all, probably impossible. And second, everything would just come to a grinding halt – if you don’t have friction, you don’t have movement.
In the same manner, if you’re eliminating the thoughts of the future from your mind and focus only on what’s now, you’ll cease existing. In probably all the senses possible.
Think about this: you drink water so you don’t become dehydrated – and avoid health issues or death. The thing is that the health issues and the potential death will occur in the future. You won’t die now.
So, if you would live exclusively in the moment and not think about the future, you wouldn’t drink that water now, because the negative effects are in the future. You would want to drink the water only in the moment in which you’re sick or dead.
OK, so we can’t live exclusively now. Do we have an alternative?
… Yes, we do.
No matter the goals, whatever your path, there are five questions to ask yourself as you strive to make the most of each moment. Of course, it is not sufficient to merely ask yourself these question, you must act on the answers you find.
- What thing that I can do now that will make this moment count five years from now? – you may vary the time period -
- What small thing can I do now that will take me closer to becoming my biggest fan?
- How can I value who I am as I strive to become who I want to be?
- If this was the last day of my life, what would I want my life to say about me?
- What can I do to make my current activity more enjoyable?
In the end, I think that the “living in the moment” thing is just a misused expression that no-one has bothered looking into.
We’re all future-living creatures, but we can learn to enjoy life on the walk there.
I wish for you all the best and I look forward to sharing more ideas that will help you reach higher.
PS: In light of the presented idea, I think it is obvious that the opening quote is rather rubbish. But it has its purpose for being there… :}
