Is It Possible To Live In The Moment?

PushpavalliSrinivasan · May 31, 2017

How I wish if my mind could be tuned as a video player so that I could rewind, pause and fast forward my life’s happenings. It is like a dream that could be never fulfilled.

Though it is not possible for ordinary people like us in the olden days many yogis had this transcendental quality. They were able to visualise the past and future.

People Say forget about the past and don’t keep worrying about the future, live in the moment. Living in the moment is not always easy. Sometimes our thoughts are overwhelmed by regrets about past events or anxiety about the future, which can make it hard to enjoy the present. To some extent we can try to forget about the past, but it is impossible to give up planning for the future.

In fact we have to plan what to cook for tomorrow and even for evening
Tiffin and dinner.

Without planning it is not possible to lead life. From birth starts the planning. Couples plan when to raise a family. Then they start planning for the child's future.

While working we have to plan for retired life. Not only that if anything untoward happens to us while working, we have to make arrangements for the family by taking insurance.

I feel that Living in the moment is quite impossible.

Nonya · May 31, 2017

Obviously planning a Tiffin can be a killer of mental tranquility. Stacking a dinner planning on top of that is a killer. Sooner than you wash the dishes from these, and put your head down for the night, the brain is gnawed by that breakfast problem. Uppuma, Idly, Pongal, what ? Would the left-over sambhar from the dinner time be unspoilt for breakfast ?

How did the yogi's of old transcend these questions ...eh ?
Did any of them ever eat some uppuma ? Or know the taste of a hot Vadai with their breakfast idlies? Or a filter coffee tossed up high into a tumbler and presented with a high standing foam?

Some of these are life's persistent questions. Can only answer these by planning well for the future.
Mental Overload In Domestic Felicity ?

Cheeniya · May 31, 2017

@PushpavalliSrinivasan
Dear PS
What is past? Can we say, is from our birth to this very minute? What is future? From this very moment to the vast time span ahead of us? Then what is the present? It is the minute Time span between the past and future. Of all the three entities, the 'present' has the shortest time span. Everything becomes the past in a second. As we sit and worry about the future, every moment of it slips into the past.
As Eckhart said, 'Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time'
Sri

Agatha83 · May 31, 2017

Dear PS,
You are absolutely right. I planned to make ice cream in the evening as a summer treat, but the treat came the other way, by not having any power for the next two days due to a serious cable fault. We plan and God disposes!
@Cheeniya sir,
I have always been weak not only in English Grammar, but also in real life, because the past, present and future always looks tense to me. You have added more to my confusion by giving masterly information about tense through your brilliant English, just like my high school English teacher!

Agatha83

Umanga · May 31, 2017

We aren't built to live in the moment.

PushpavalliSrinivasan · May 31, 2017

Nonya said: ↑

Obviously planning a Tiffin can be a killer of mental tranquility. Stacking a dinner planning on top of that is a killer. Sooner than you wash the dishes from these, and put your head down for the night, the brain is gnawed by that breakfast problem. Uppuma, Idly, Pongal, what ? Would the left-over sambhar from the dinner time be unspoilt for breakfast ?

How did the yogi's of old transcend these questions ...eh ?
Did any of them ever eat some uppuma ? Or know the taste of a hot Vadai with their breakfast idlies? Or a filter coffee tossed up high into a tumbler and presented with a high standing foam?

Some of these are life's persistent questions. Can only answer these by planning well for the future.
Mental Overload In Domestic Felicity ?
Click to expand...

@Nonya,
Dear Nonya,
Thank God! I don't have to rake my brain what to make for breakfast as as we have brunch straightaway skipping breakfast.
I believe the olden days yogis never tasted filter coffe, uppuma, pongal, Idly etc. They only ate what they got from plants like fruits and roots.

Now we have fridge to keep all the leftover things due to the technological advance.
PS

PushpavalliSrinivasan · May 31, 2017

Cheeniya said: ↑

@PushpavalliSrinivasan
Dear PS
What is past? Can we say, is from our birth to this very minute? What is future? From this very moment to the vast time span ahead of us? Then what is the present? It is the minute Time span between the past and future. Of all the three entities, the 'present' has the shortest time span. Everything becomes the past in a second. As we sit and worry about the future, every moment of it slips into the past.
As Eckhart said, 'Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time'
Sri
Click to expand...

@Cheeniya
Dear Mr Cheeniya,
Time and tide wait for no man. Neither we can travel back to the past nor stay in the present. We can only keep planning for the future and let the present become past.
OMG! My head is spinning fast and I wonder whether I can decipher myself what I have written as reply to your fb.
PS

PushpavalliSrinivasan · May 31, 2017

Agatha83 said: ↑

Dear PS,
You are absolutely right. I planned to make ice cream in the evening as a summer treat, but the treat came the other way, by not having any power for the next two days due to a serious cable fault. We plan and God disposes!
@Cheeniya sir,
I have always been weak not only in English Grammar, but also in real life, because the past, present and future always looks tense to me. You have added more to my confusion by giving masterly information about tense through your brilliant English, just like my high school English teacher!

Agatha83
Click to expand...

@Agatha83
Dear Agatha,
Sorry to hear that your ice cream summer treat got spoiled due to power failure.
Very true, man proposes and God disposes.
PS

PushpavalliSrinivasan · May 31, 2017

Umanga said: ↑

We aren't built to live in the moment.
Click to expand...

@Umanga
Absolutely right. Living in the present is impossible.
PS

jayasala42 · May 31, 2017

Dear Pushpa, A million dollar question which has not been replied satisfactorily by anyone.An introspective snippet!

For generations we have been advised to live in the present in order to have a sense of calmness and happiness.The past is termed as history and the future as 'mystery' as though the present alone is real.
If there is a plan already mapped out by Destiny for everyone, what is the Free Will for?

‘we need to practice being our future self’ -this is the advice given to present generation by leading psychologists.
If the present is somewhat calm and enjoyable we may try to live in it.But if we are already in a crisis, definitely we would like to analyse why the crisis has arisen and will definitely try to erase of our past
mistakes and enter into a better future-That is what the wise men are expected to do.
The management prescribes self assessment programmes-evidently an insight into your past.
They want you to enlist your ambitions-an estimate of your future plans.Dr. Abdul kalam advised every student to have good dreams.

I firmly believe in visualisation. Whenever I’m having a day where I lack belief and wonder where my path is taking me, I try to remain positive as best I can.Being positive is essentially to live in future only.Jotting down plans and modifying them on and often by thought process is a good sign of personality development.

Our thoughts in our mind travel in nano seconds, and before we think and act,the thoughts
would belong to 'past'.
Actually speaking, in a continous 'Time' process, the words-past, present and future have no such big distinctions as we think.There is no present without the past and there is no future without
the present.Very often when one is full of conceit about his wealth, he is very often advised to
look back the path he treaded in the past.The lady who has lost the husband is consoled
and advised to look to the future of children and she is constantly reminded of the light at the end of tunnel.

Grammatically too all may be 'tenses'or may be perfect.But 'hoping for the best ,simultaneously preparing for the worst' may be a better solution rather than ignoring the past and future without which the present has no significance.
To live totally in the present ,without a tinge of care for past or or future ,seems to be an illusion.

Jayasala 42