Living Mindfully in the Past

Every now and then someone says something which really resonates with me. In reply to a documentarian's question about consciousness and the present moment, a Chilean astronomer sat high in his Atacama-based observatory matter of factly explains that everything we do remains in the past. He goes on to say that ‘the present doesn’t exist. The only present that might exist is the one in my mind. It is the closest we come to the absolute present.’ Think about that for a moment … the present doesn’t exist. How could it? Now, everyone who initiates themselves into the practice of meditation is told from the get-go that the goal is to mindfully live in the present without losing oneself in regrets of the past or fantasies of the future. Me included as I enthusiastically embraced a daily 20-minute practice of morning meditation for several months before letting the discipline slip. I regret that but if I was never actually living in the present and only in the past, what reality is it anyway?

The past (your past) always exits as it's been done no matter what.

Your present exists but alters by everything you do even sitting down, as the world doesn't stop 24/7, absolute present is not absolute as every millisecond brings you to whatever future you land on good or bad.

Edit to add....Guess it's like chess, you can only get to the future by being in the present but to get to the desired future you need to make the right move, so in essence the present already exists in the past/present and future every millisecond.

a reply to: LarryLove

Being aware of the thought you are thinking now...the feeling you are feeling now...that nanosecond of awareness...not the thought...not the feeling...that nano second of awareness, can only happen in the present moment.

A present.

CF

originally posted by: ClownFish
a reply to: LarryLove

Being aware of the thought you are thinking now...the feeling you are feeling now...that nanosecond of awareness...not the thought...not the feeling...that nano second of awareness, can only happen in the present moment.

A present.

CF

But that moment has already happened as the electrical signals combining to form conscious thought come before your awareness. That thought, as you say, can only be rooted in the past.

originally posted by: LarryLove
I regret that but if I was never actually living in the present and only in the past, what reality is it anyway?

Reality is what is happening.

You can never live in the present because 'you' only appear in thoughts that are happening about the past or future.
What is actually happening cannot be put into words (thoughts) - so 'you' don't exist now - 'you' only appear to exist in stories - what is happening is not a story made of words.

Lol, few days ago,i wanted to start a new Thread with the thema: "The only time is Now".
But i havent had much to discuss about it, so i leaved it be.

And now this almost opposite Thread came up.

Actually, the only time that exists is Now.
You cant Grasp Now with your mind, because you (we) have trained the mind to think in past terms, and plan for the future.
This mind is always looking at the past, trying to perpetuate it and make of it the Future.
Every second that passes, is past allready, and when you Think about it. Your thinking will be always on the past.

But "Now" can only be experienced. When you stop your thinking about past and future, when you stop worrying, fearing etc, then you will be in Now.

And the experience will be everything else, different than you ever thought it to be.

The mind can only speak about past and future - stories of before and after - but all the stories appear now - nothing can appear outside now because all eyes are now.
Seeing and hearing are always present and the mind appears now.

Thought divides now into before and after because thought can do nothing with now. Thought cannot do anything with the past or the future because they don't exist now.

The mind likes to play God. But God is this that IS - timelessly being all there is.

Who/what is doing now??

The only way 'you' can seem to exist as a separate entity is to project a graven image of 'yourself' into past and future (cast out of the presence of God - made of nothing but the presence of God).

a reply to: LarryLove

I see what you are saying. I think we are speaking apples and oranges. I was referring to a rare moment of experiencing a moment of consciousness, basically before all of these electrical signals are moving about analyzing it.

You are reminding me of a math class many years ago, where the instructor said that if you are trying to hit an apple on someone's head with an arrow, the arrow has to first travel half the distance, but first half that difference, etc., so that in theory, the arrow never makes it to the apple.

I'd hope for the poor guy holding the apple on his head, that it did indeed hit it's mark, but then...well, actually, I was the brightest student in the class....Scary, isn't it?

I think you are talking about time and space, where electrical things going on in one's brain can indeed be properly measured and ordered. But, at least in my opinion, consciousness is beyond all that....or we think it is.

Everything has or is a reference point to something else, but where is the original point? (smile)

I apologize if I bumped the wrong thread. I do that unintentionally sometimes. I'll tip toe away now...carry on...

CF