Presenting the Bridge
Many lifestyle and self-help gurus advocate living in the present. They make up catchy lines like, “Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.” That’s an interesting bit of wordsmithery, if you ask me and pretty cogent — depends on who and where you are (philosophical positioning).
When Asuph was doing the fine balancing with his comment on my previous post, I wondered about the present (not the gift but the now).
There is no present.
By the time you finished reading the sentence above and are reading this word, it is already past. The present is such an infinitely small span of time it is impossible to be in the present. I may well be accused of logical word terrorism here, however, this concept deserves staying in the present and pondering over it.
Asuph said, “Future is just present, delayed a bit.” I think we are always nearly in the future. If there is a border for the start and end of the present, we are usually towards the end-border. That is the place where we are. In that space, all actions we commit are based on past experiences and designed for the future. There can never be any being in the present. That state is always dynamic and churning the present into past, while we move towards the future. Each action instantly becomes the past and is deposited for us to access and refer, in the “next” future. With each passing moment and that instant which we call the present, we are building up our past. Even in the so called present, if you are able to identify that time, we are always referring to the past or planning for (or contemplating) the future.
The present is only a bridge between the past and the future. You are on it, for the briefest moment that links the two and makes complete, your life.
And this is how Zeno’s arrow is flying and yet motionless.
Thank you so much for that reference. Amazing! I wish I had read about the concept before I wrote this post, would have made it more credible and read-worthy!
Lovely! I especially loved this quote-worthy line “There is no present.” This is so true!
I am reading your blog after a long time. But somethings don’t change. Whenever I read a Gaizabonts post, I can feel a beautiful calm inside me and I know it’s to do with finding spaces to breathe in this mad mad world.
Yo! Been a while, yes. Merci!
Very interesting perspective. Very motivating too. I think most self-help books that ask us to dwell on the present are making us lag behind. For people who want to make progress every nth moment, need to realize that it is already tad bit too late.
Thank-you for this post.