Living For The Now Defeats The Purpose Of Living

Living for the now does not mean you dont plan for the future but you find happyness in the present and dont cling to the future and past for it.

On a slightly off topic tangent.

What are you living FOR?

I have reached the age where I can think back 20 or so years and know what I was doing, and what others were doing in the spring of their youth and idealism.

Now I see people who seem to have lost something in the intervening years. Not only their hair but their passion and stamina for living.

Looking ahead I see people who are elderly, and see what they consider their greatest posessions.

For example a guy who collected tractors his entire life. When you die, all those posessions and "things" get given to others, there is nothing that you make that is permanent. Death makes all your striving, working and buying seem a waste of time. You lose it all.

Some say that you live on through your kids, but who here knows anything much about their great grandparents? None of us, their lives, experiences and emotions are gone, as dry and dead as the dust their bodies have become.

So between the idealism of youth and the materialism of age, there must be a purpose not only to leave behind for posterity, but also to take with you to the next stage of your existance.

One thing I can guarentee on, its not things, or posessions. All we can take and leave are the things that change individuals lives.

Given that we are mostly chemistry and electricity in our consciousness, and perhaps something more, we live slightly, ever so slightly in our perceptions in the past. We are not quite "now," but we are very close. The real "now," is slightly in the future, although Einstein stated that time-space is integral with consciousness.

One could conceive fairly well that the notion of our being "slightly in the past," is intuitive but also based upon the facts of the matter. It takes time for the electricity in our nerve impulses to travel a certain distance in the synergy that is consciousness. But that only makes the narrow band of the here and now so rewarding! Because of the ever so small delay of things we live our lives just that much more patiently and savor it much more than someone who is just a bit "faster."

So when one makes such a broad statement about the here and now, as "living for the now defeats the purpose of living," is possibly quite true. Are you living too urgently in the here and now, hence missing the savoring of it all?

If one means to say you live for the anticipation of something, you are still anticipating in the here and now. It is all here and now, even the remembering. So honestly I am not sure I know what you mean until you define your terms. It also depends upon the quality of the "now," doesn't it? I am undefeated when I live a quality life in the here and now, otherwise am I missing something?

Does "living for the moment" just mean that you should get any enjoyment as soon as possible? This probably will lead to many moments without enjoyment, and you'll have are memories.