Lately I have been reading a lot of buddhist literature and I have to admit that the principles are really intriguing. I have also been listening to the podcast by Alan Watts. The concept he brought up was something that really brought everything back into focus. The concept was, memories of past and dreams of future do not exist. When you first think about it, it seems nuts, right? Memories exist, I was there, I “remember” them. But think about it, they don’t. Memories are what ever you want them to be. How many times have you remembered something so vividly that you can experience the smells, sounds and tastes all over again, only to find out that what you remember is not exactly the way it happened? You could swear that you were wearing a red shirt but the pictures from the day show you in a blue one. We spend a large part of our day thinking back to days of yore and the fact remains that the moment the event passes, no matter what the event, it no longer exists.Â
Now go the other way. How much of our lives do we spend planning for the future or envisioning an occurance exactly the way we want it to happen and when the moment we are thinking about arrives, it is nothing like the way we had hoped. The reason……because the moment you were thinking about didn’t exist when you were thinking about it. We spends hours, days, dreaming and planning for a future that does not exist.
The only thing that truly exists is this exact moment right now and if you think about it too long, that moment no longer exists either. There is no origin or destination, only the moment of the journey you are in righ now. I know, its trippy, but it is fact. I guess that is why the book makers never go out of business.