How do you live in the present?

[BLAHBLAHJAH]

Not a stoned thought, more like a decade's worth.

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” – Buddha


Discuss? Deny? Does sd5 still roost around here?

[kay]

I concur.

Not easy though.

[noam]

in that specific way, isn't 'the present' more of a metaphor than a temporal location?

so in that respect the present, represents harmony

so for example it could be a natural balance of your past memories and future goals combining to create the metaphysical concept of 'the present'

its all about entwining all the different facets of yourself, your life, into a whole - that whole is the present

i dont study buddhism tho, Cityzen is good for this kind of knowledge, sure dtr could throw in a good account too, magma aswell??

[ch3]

I agree with noam (at least I think I do Living in the present does not equal 'I don't care what happened in the past and I don't give a shit about future'. It's more about not letting them overcome your present being, e.g. one can't be happy because they are holding a grudge and won't let go of things or because they worry too much about what's gonna happen. It's about finding that balance where you learn from your past without holding onto it, and when you plan the future but don't let your present revolve solely around it - it's a trap easy to fall into.

Difficult, but trying my best!

[jigglypuff]

waiting for a physicist ninja to send my mind potty

[noam]

its postulated that your brain works backwards through time.

[d-T-r]

Lots of different ways.

It's about being conscious of not just your own thoughts, but the reasons you have those thoughts in the first place and how they serve you. being aware of our own behavioral inclinations and why they have occurred and what they are pointing towards.

The majority of the time we spend thinking about things which naturally take us out of the moment. We imagine how past or future scenarios and interactions play out and literally place energy on those thoughts even when it drains us and does nothing for the right now. Those thoughts create the feedback loop of emotions & thoughts, and it cycles around and around and we're more often than not , at the mercy of a mental-storm full of self-contradictions that we're aware of, but have a hard time acting on, and out of.

As soon as we realize we all have basic desires , we notice all of our thoughts are geared towards reaffirming our own self-perception and our own perception of everything around us. We feel 'empowered' when we think something about ourselves or others and believe it to be true.Wwhile at the same time this can work for our advantage, it can also put limitations on the possible ways in which we can expand which leads to a big loss of mental energy and not being present.

"What you resist, Persists"

I've figured this out the hard way lately which has led me to a hunch that Buddhism is a lot more Quantum than it first appears. I've had no choice but to watch my thoughts closely as i've seen first-hand how fast negativity,fear and anger can manifest into situations based on those if i find myself in those moods.

I've also thankfully realized lately that every situation you're presented with is there for the purpose of seeing beyond it and learning from it. Even the most painful scenarios we don't' want, are actually a blessing in disguise as any pain/suffering is just the minds way of saying 'No, not like this...try again'.

Scenarios repeat until we move out from them. Action + Reaction etc.

Your own thoughts shape your universe. sounds like a cop out phrase almost, but it's all down to the Language constructs in our minds and how we process information and stimuli and what it does and where it go's after. ties in to the n.l.p stuff too i guess.

If we don't have a word for it , what is it? the more we conceptually define things, the more our perception expands. the more we label things, the more limitations we put on the expansion of those things. tangents upon tangents. .

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

The thing with Buddhism is that its not really a set of rules or anything, just a way of being self aware to the point where you can completely still feel a full range of emotions, you just don't identify with those emotions/thoughts as being who you are. essentially, the journey back from a human-doing into a human-being.

People make the mistake of thinking that leads to nihilism when in fact it's the opposite.

complete self awareness requires compassion of self to achieve it. then you meet that with compassion for others as we realize we're all in the same net of entangled interactions and perceptions that shape our society and behavior.

Best practice of course is to just breathe though. allow thoughts to come, but watch them go instead of latching on.

all a learning curve for all of us anyway. now is always now.

To live in the present, ask yourself what you personally think the advantages could potentially be, and ask yourself the ways that could personally work for you, by comparing how other people do it, with your own 'character'.

It's more than likely we already know everything we need to, we just can't always verbalize it and bring it home. Everything we learn as 'new' is just remembering how it was before our ego/social identities absorbed a life time of interactions and imprints.

not really sure where to end it, one of those things to relax into either way.


tl;dr = breathe.

[kay]

[noam]

[dubfordessert]

i find it easy to live in the present because my medication makes me zen as fuck

[Hedley King]

"I know that n!££@s would kill for this lifestyle, I'm looking forward to the memories of right now"

[ch3]

Wow d-T-r, you've put it across perfectly.

Best practice of course is to just breathe though. allow thoughts to come, but watch them go instead of latching on.

tl;dr = breathe.

As my boss likes to say (no, Bruce Lee ain't my boss, but the words are pretty accurate!)



He's got a handful of wisdoms alike, that actually helped me out in quite a few though situations.

[jigglypuff]

all my stupid posts aside, d-t-r got me really thinking today...

[WhosZena]

read - each - word - as - if - it - was - not - directly - connected - to - the - other - word - in - front - or - behind - itself


but - just - sitting - there - as - if - it - does - not - need - to - be - anywhere - else

[knell]

waiting for a physicist ninja to send my mind potty

the rational physicist's cited and provable answers to this would be rather dull and unconstructive, imo. physics is easy, it's observed phenomena translated through math. theoretical physics can predict unobservable phenomenons... none of which will really give you an answer that would be truly satisfying. it would be something along the lines of "by existing in an objective, linear, measurable/observable system"

biology, on the other hand... billions of years of bottom-up evolution has left us with far more mysteries than physics ever will provide, as related as they may seem. a neuroscientist's take would be far more relevant, yet still inconclusive.

as for my take on the quote, i suppose buddha was suggesting that only an unhealthy person would dwell in a fantasy world (e.g., the past or future, which aren't currently existing)... even in our current society, people who live in imaginary worlds are put into hospitals for their own safety (or perceived safety). the past and future are equally imaginary as any other hallucination (even the realest feeling memories can be demonstrably false), thus leaving the only practical and healthy choice: living in / focusing on what's real... the present.

[d-T-r]

Wow d-T-r, you've put it across perfectly.

Best practice of course is to just breathe though. allow thoughts to come, but watch them go instead of latching on.

tl;dr = breathe.

As my boss likes to say (no, Bruce Lee ain't my boss, but the words are pretty accurate!)



He's got a handful of wisdoms alike, that actually helped me out in quite a few though situations.

Cool, i'm glad any of it came across clearly And yeah, you can't really argue with Bruce lee even if he is your imaginary boss

The elements thing is on point though.I wonder if he was a Water sign in astrology. All elements interact and 'echo' into each other and everything else so looking at things from a purely elemental point of view is a nice way to see where things need addressing to find a balance (which leads to now-presence)

Chinese medicine + Paganism, Alchemists and countless other collectives of people from around the world knew/know this is useful way for good physical and meta-physical health.







Makes sense really, whether you look at it from a psychological or biological angle, we are the most current manifestations of interacting elements.

[BLAHBLAHJAH]

Interesting insight! Maybe I should've put emphasis on "you" in the title; perhaps more intrigued on a personal level and observations from thought/experiences than underlying ideas.

Bruce was a good lad. Top lad in fact. One of his attitudes actually brought me to this. In learning to draw: "True observation begins when one is devoid of set patterns". From using this thought I wonder if art is a contradiction to this idea of obtaining health and wellbeing in "the present"? Is it infact a huge handicap to have a desire to create things effectively leaving a mark or a stain... In spite of it all, is it just a distraction? The present state often seems to be to learn and invest into a future... Not a career, but a development of skill. The only way to ever get good at something is to at one point have accepted that a current present tense isn't happiness and the path will bring troubles then get moving. You know like people say, if you're going through hell, don't pitch a tent. With milestones though, surely it guarantees an unfulfilled life with a desperate death? But then you flip a coin... Maybe living "in the present" is about actually using the present to judge either side of time and make ammends + improvements.

“We're not here to leave a mark, bro. Monuments, legacies, marks - that's where we always go wrong. We're here to revel in the world, to soak in the awesomeness of it, to enjoy the ride. The world's maximum perfect as it is, beauty from horizon to horizon. Any mark any of us tries to leave - hell, it's only graffitti. Any mark anyone leaves is no better than vandalism.”

Maybe all this is flowery talk cos haters say it's a bum man ting to be an artist

[capo ultra]

[kay]

I think that modern day life can make it more difficult to live in the present. When you're inundated non-stop by questions/statements like "What are you going to be doing next year?", "Are you prepared for the future?" and "DOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!" you would have a natural inclination towards thinking non-stop about the future (possibly negatively) rather than living in the present. This inherent need to be somewhere was probably responsible in spurring humanity to where it is now, but it probably makes contentment in The Now difficult to achieve.

This sort of preponderance on the future came across quite clear in the interviews I've been to recently, in which the one single question that was common to all of them was "Where do you want to see your career develop towards in 5-10 years?". I still haven't come up with a suitable answer yet. But that kinda threw most of the interviewers off because they all expect that people have some kind of career advancement path in mind by the time they get to my position.

Sometimes, the other difficulty I have with living in the present is that I have a pretty good long term memory compared to most people. Usually, it's a good thing because this allows me to tap past experiences to avoid present unpleasantness. But if I'm not careful, I can get myself caught up in loops of negativity which eventually lead to a depressed state. Or it could hinder the development of new relationships or new directions to explore due to trepidation of past burnings.

I suppose the only way to live in the present is to be able to move past the past, and not to let one's thoughts get too far ahead of the future.

[d-T-r]

. One of his attitudes actually brought me to this. In learning to draw: "True observation begins when one is devoid of set patterns". From using this thought I wonder if art is a contradiction to this idea of obtaining health and wellbeing in "the present"? Is it infact a huge handicap to have a desire to create things effectively leaving a mark or a stain... In spite of it all, is it just a distraction?

I don't think all art is a contradiction to obtaining health and well being in the present. I guess it's quite a subjective thing to talk about though.

Art go's where words often can't.

the desire to create things and leave a mark isn't just subject to a human sense of 'achievement' . it's inbuilt into the universe to continue it's own legacy. redefining it's self as it recreates it's self in order to remain in tune with everything else , as every other thing also changes .

Against the face of impermanence, leaving visual,symbolic and linguistic 'hints' or 'promts' through art,speech,music isn't an exercise in self-distraction, more an opportunity to analyze our past and current selves and adjust accordingly when 'needed' to steer the present into the future we 'deserve'.

it's only a distraction when we label it as such i reckon. Again, it's the mental inclinations that lead to labeling and defining the pattern leading to limitations of them, yet they also provide the frame works for us to evolve and build upon them.. polarized and contradictory yet completely balanced.

there's a difference between trying to write your name pissing against a wall , and creating something that inspires others to invest in their own personal and eventual, collective creative power.

We should still revel in our existence for sure, but sometimes people need some transferred stimuli to lead them to realize they have 'permission' to revel as well and should make that a fundamental priority. Art ,music etc will always exist to remind us that life is more expansive when viewed as a celebration of our own potential, as apposed to something we have to endure.

Again one of those things where any extremities in view points or beliefs becomes as irrelevant as the things they're speaking for or against.

so on that note, something somethings something,something thing some some ?

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- And nice one capo, i almost mentioned eckhart tolle earlier but thought not to.his voice can be an obstacle for some but he breaks it down well.

and

I suppose the only way to live in the present is to be able to move past the past, and not to let one's thoughts get too far ahead of the future.

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