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Does the present moment exist?
I had a meditation experience about this a few months ago and was wondering what other's thought...
When most of us think of "the present" we typically think of a short period of time relative to our current experience defined by the boundaries we put on a specific event or task. For example, when you're eating dinner you might define the present as the time you begin eating and the future (which presumably ends the present) as the time after you are done eating. But you can divide up the present into smaller and smaller pieces, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, etc. and each division can be further defined in terms of past and future on into ad nauseum.
In Buddhism, we stress focusing on the present moment. Meditation is all about being present, watching what's happening NOW. So I ask, does the present moment even exist?
When most of us think of "the present" we typically think of a short period of time relative to our current experience defined by the boundaries we put on a specific event or task. For example, when you're eating dinner you might define the present as the time you begin eating and the future (which presumably ends the present) as the time after you are done eating. But you can divide up the present into smaller and smaller pieces, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, etc. and each division can be further defined in terms of past and future on into ad nauseum.
In Buddhism, we stress focusing on the present moment. Meditation is all about being present, watching what's happening NOW. So I ask, does the present moment even exist?
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Comments
Or... so I've heard.
I wasn't literally thinking about this logically or literally during meditation. Rather, I had the experience of it and watched how it felt to be a person constantly moving from past to future. It was an acute awareness of time and my relationship with it. It wasn't until after my meditation session that I made a mental construct of my experience to satisfy my naturally clinging mind and explain it to others.
no matter how hard you try you cannot escape this moment. like even abstracting this moment into concepts can only be done in this moment.
there is only this moment. hahaha
I think it can be good to analyze your mind but in a soft way like seeing impermanence of your feelings and thoughts, how we create and project our suffering. But the most important thing is to practice compassion, joy, humanity and humility for others. There is so much anger, stress and conflicts in the world and I think the best way is not to detache from it and analyze to much. This world needs our care. :rolleyes:
That is why many teachers have not really comprehended emptiness, when they say things like "only the Now exists".
"The mind of the past is ungraspable, the mind of the future is ungraspable, the mind of the present is ungraspable."
~ Diamond Sutra
for me, the notion of 'the present moment' is illusion & beguilement
the illusion of the present moment passes away very quickly
like, "now" (woops! its gone already) i will type "this" in what I tried to make the present moment
but the moment in which I typed that "this" in the last sentence is gone
forever
:bawl:
Even so, we need some frame of reference for paying attention to awareness in the here and now.
That's why people describe living in the now as accessing the infinite. Time is a mental construct in our head. A reference system with which to measure and analyze our world. When you stop THINKING, there is no time.
Just as when you stop using a ruler and in thinking in terms of inches....there are no inches.
The three times are marks that establish eachother. Since none of them have no substance in them selves they cannot really establish eachother. Therefore each of the three times is insubstantial and created by the mind.
Lama Shenpen Hookham: Anything that manifests in time is manifestation and relative only…………it has no ultimate Reality.
Enlightenment is beyond the mind's conditioning.
regarding Dhamma, Buddha said :
"the Dhamma is visible in the here-&-now, timeless, inviting verification, pertinent, to be realized by the wise for themselves."
An 6.47 Sanditthika Sutta: Visible Here and Now
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an06/an06.047.than.html
It exists.
It does not exist.
It both exists and does not exist.
It neither exists nor does not exist.
Thinking/concepts/beliefs cannot unravel such a ball of yarn. Only realization and actualization will do the trick.
it's all empty of "inherent existence".
but from the start if one realizes the present moment, they have a greater chance to realize that even this moment is empty. there is just infinite potential and the actualization of that infinite potential.
the idea is to use logic to destroy logic. so you assert all positions, then you negate all positions.
thus you are saying everything and at the same time saying nothing.
Silence > concepts > Silence.
the idea is that concepts are fragmenting and pointing to truth. where as the silence is the truth. not the idea of silence but the actual silence. or rather since the silence doesn't exist outside or inside but rather in being. not a being but being.
so when a person says the present moment or now only exists, they are referring to what is in front of them. not the idea of the now or present, but reality as it is. because when you get down to it, that is the only thing we know for sure. everything else is speculation & theory.
the only thing i know for sure is that there is awareness of what is in front of me right now. there is only awareness. but even that is empty.
think of a film strip and how there are single frames. these single frames are moved very fast and we get motion pictures.
the idea is that there is an infinite amount of static realities and when we perceive change or motion or time, we are just going through an infinite amount of parallel realities.
it's an interesting concept to think about. idk if i am giving it justice though ha
just keep going back to that nothingness, don't interpret it. don't label. just feel it from the neck down in your body. feel the spaciousness. breathe in and breathe out. from there consciousness can flower.
check out adyashanti and listen to all of his videos. don't think about it. don't use your intelligence. just open up to it. let it sit in your body and heart.
'I am not, I will not be.
I have not, I will not have.
This frightens all children,
And kills fear in the wise.'
Nagarjuna
Samadhi Raja Sutra
Know all things to be like this:
A mirage, a cloud castle,
A dream, an apparition,
Without essence, but with qualities that can be seen.
Know all things to be like this:
As the moon in a bright sky
In some clear lake reflected,
Though to that lake the moon has never moved.
Know all things to be like this:
As an echo that derives
From music, sounds, and weeping,
Yet in that echo is no melody.
Know all things to be like this:
As a magician makes illusions
Of horses, oxen, carts and other things,
Nothing is as it appears.
The Buddha
Apparently you don't know very much about Zen then.
I understand that thinking or contemplating the present moment, or even any aspect of buddhism for that matter is pointless unless practiced. But, if you are meditating, you are focusing your mind which requires thinking, I do not understand how to 'open up' and 'let it sit in your body and heart'. If you stop thinking, surely you are classified as dead
:bowdown:
so when you are meditating there is awareness. then a thought appears. then there is awareness of the lack of thought or the awareness right after thought. think of awareness as you sitting down watching a movie and thoughts and feelings as things on the movie screen. you watch them come and go without judgement or commenting.
the idea is to keep your emphasis on the background after/before thoughts. or the nothingness. or the stillness. whatever the hell you want to call it. the gaps between thoughts and feelings. its in those gaps where consciousness can flower.
by opening up i mean to kind of relax into it. like open yourself up physically to it by breathing and expanding your chest. and even intellectually open up to the possibility of learning something.
i assure you that you won't die if you stop thinking. thinking is secondary to the function of consciousness. consciousness is the standard and constant, where as thinking comes and goes. you are always conscious, thus it is the most intimate and overlooked part of the human experience. it's so simple that it's almost difficult to realize it.
wish ya luck brother
As soon as you note the sound the original event is over. You can only know what arises in your consciousness. Past, present and future are only concepts, not reality.
Everything else is a dependent coarising.
Quote:
"'Everything exists': That is one extreme. 'Everything doesn't exist': That is a second extreme. Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathagata teaches the Dhamma via the middle: From ignorance as a requisite condition come fabrications. From fabrications as a requisite condition comes consciousness. From consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-&-form. From name-&-form as a requisite condition come the six sense media. From the six sense media as a requisite condition comes contact. From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling. From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging/sustenance. From clinging/sustenance as a requisite condition comes becoming. From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth. From birth as a requisite condition, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. Such is the origination of this entire mass of stress & suffering.
Kaccayanagotta Sutta
Relax, let them all go, awareness is now !