NOW
AND THE ABSURDITY OF "KILLING TIME"
"There is no other alternative."
Sam Harris (watch the video cited)
"'It's life or death!'
Yes, it certainly is!"
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UNDERSTANDING - AND WHY WE MUST UNDERSTAND
The metaphysicists and philosophers talk about "all there is is now". We accept it as "wise" or "true", but it goes right over our heads or zips past us without ever really landing or ending in deep understanding. We still worry about death and alot of crappola that has no reality to it.
So, that means it needs to be explained further. And the only reason it needs to be explained further is so that it is understood, which must absolutely happen if we are to live our lives to the fullest.
If we are to live life fully, we cannot care about the petty things we allow ourselves to care about...
We must understand that there is only now and not deny death. We must not allow ourselves to "watch that bad movie for the fourth time", as Sam Harris, a rational logicist, asserts in this brief video: It Is Always Now (5:43)
We are caught up in a "mental construct", something we made up in our minds, believing it is real. We fear the picture of death, but it is guaranteed to come, and to come to a screeching halt when it comes - and then it'll be over, no regrets because I will not be congnizant of anything. There is nothing to fear, nothing to miss after the fact. (Indeed, it is sensible to be like the man who fell out of the window at the 50th story, who was heard to say as he passed a lower window: "Well, so far, so good...!)
One of the ironies is that most humans spend their lives seeking peace (i.e. relief from worry and anxiety), not fully living their lives - but the very thing they worry about and are anxious about is related to dying (in some way) - and then what we fear is, indeed, that which we have been seeking - relief from worry and anxiety (as only can be done at the highest level by being dead).
Yes, I did read The Power Of Now, by Eckhart Tolle, and it seemed profound, but methinks I didn't "get it". The book is one of the most recommended books of wisdom of all time, so it is a probable read. I think, perhaps, that the key point is that the past doesn't really exist and the future certainly doesn't, so the only place where power can be is in the moment that I can do something (take an action and experience it). (Power is defined as the ability to cause something.) See the second appending section for comments and summary points on this book.
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Since all of our body/mind mechanics are evolved due to their survival value, all of our signals resulting in "bad feeling" chemicals will be in full force whenever anything, even a believed thought, threatens that survival. It will just happen mechanically - and you're unlikely to have a choice of stopping the initial impulse (chemical resulting in something we call an emotion/feeling). But, then, we can recognize the signal and evaluate it with our higher brain to see if it is in our best interest to freak out and run or fight like hell or to ignore the signal as not being relevant to the reality of life.
The reality is that we will live until we die, and there is nothing we can do about that. We can prolong life, yes - and we get a number of extra "nows" by doing that. But how many "nows" are enough? We always seem to want more, no matter how many we've had - and we suffer about the idea that we may not get more. But the suffering is pointless as we will get only what we get - and we have alot we have gotten. Looking forward is pure speculation, but looking backward does make some sense. I have accumulated alot of "nows" - and that is, to me, wonderful.
In fact, I am even in my "bonus" range, where I have gotten more than enough and am not afraid of dying (or running short of what I "should" have). It's ok, if I die tomorrow (but I would prefer not to die today, as I'm having so much fun with life right now). And, yes, I may not have time to make my full impact on life, to change the world to ultimate magnificence (or whatever high falootin' goal or mission) - but, alas, I won't know the difference anyway - it won't matter to me, for I will have already checked out and be gone, not sensing anything - and therefore I cannot feel bad about it. The screen simply went blank. [Or, if there is some form of eternal life, I won't be concerned with the crappola or significance of life as I will always have it. Now is that a cool concept that is attractive as hell or is it a cool concept that is as attractive as hell (oops, I mean heaven).]
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SUMMARY AND COMMENTS ON THE POWER OF NOW
See the summary points made in Wikipedia on The Power Of Now. Yes, it is true that:
- Both an individual's past and future is created by their thoughts (only!).
- And that "You Are Not Your Mind"
- "You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present. Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be." - Of course!
- "Tomorrow's bills are not the problem" and can be a "core delusion" that changes a "mere situation, event or emotion" into a reason for suffering and unhappiness - Amen! Though it may be hard to "get", at first.
It is not quite true that:
There is no ego, though it is a useful metaphor (but no more than a metaphor). And there are no other "beings" or "entities" fooling around in your head - those are madeup explanations ala The Believing Brain.
Eh?
"Nothing can exist without no-thing, without the empty space that enables it to be." Not quite sure what that means, as reality technically exists in all places, even if we can't physically see "stuff" in those spaces. Oh, well, I'll write that off as insignificant and a real stretch in trying to explain things.
"The cessation of thinking" must mean that we are not consciously thinking or directing things, but we are always 'thinking', in that signals are being communicated constantly by our brains - and I defy you to try to fit into the spaces in between!
Spiritual mumbo jumbo aside, it has some "good teachings". Now I will go off into the closet and contemplate the "sound of one hand clapping", as was done in the days of the hippies in the '50's.
Learn more from master teachers in a free online course: Understanding Eckhart Tolle's The Power Of Now. (Do this during your spare time; for now it is more important that you do the higher payoff items at the more basic level, finishing off the sequence that starts with The Quickest Life Improvers or the Implementing Happiness book that will soon be on a separate site (so it is "coming"). In the spare time freed up for the highly refined higher levels, you can do this course as a bonus activity.
And Oprah even did a course with him on the book I liked better: New Earth
And also on her site: "A Happier You" by Tolle. Link further into Tolle on her site. After removing some of the "lingo", there is alot of true stuff here (but be careful not to buy into anything beyond a "mechanics" that always exist in the real world - and note that there is no "unreal world" that is proven, yet - it is just made up by alot of people, in their own little variations).
