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Living in the Present Our lives are governed by time, by the need to be at the doctor's office at 4:00 PM, the need to be in Chicago on September 24th and so on. Though we are at the mercy of schedules and clocks, do we really understand these constraints? If I existed totally alone, would I need time? Couldn't I simply eat when I was hungry and sleep when I was tired? Perhaps all the other people enmeshed in our lives create this dependence on synchronization. In an effort to merge our lives into a meaningful pattern with others, we must have a way to show up at the tennis court at the same time as our partner. In fact, almost everything we do that involves other people must be coordinated in time to achieve a desired result. But time is artificial; it does not really exist. Time was invented by Humans. In our smugness, we examined our world, divided planetary rotations by comet sightings and proclaimed we held the keys to Universe and the blueprints of the Grand Plan. If there is a given point in time, say ... NOW ... there must also be a point before and a point after. These points we call the past and future. The past and future thus created are problem children because they steal from us. They steal our concentration on the present. Most of us are so constantly occupied by what happened yesterday and by what we hope will happen tomorrow that we fail to fully enjoy that which is occurring... NOW. As much as I would like to try to convince you that the past is only a dream and the future merely a hope and that neither are at all connected to the present, I cannot. You know that what you did yesterday has an impact on today. If you wish to be a great violinist, you had better have spent many yesterdays practicing. This past practice changes (and hopefully) improves how you play ... NOW. I must also admit the need to plan for the future. Our reason tells us that there are opportunities and dangers in the future that must be anticipated and planned for. Because we have chosen to live by time, we should learn from the past and plan wisely for the future. The problem is that we get marooned in these artificial lands called "past" and "future" and do not enjoy life, which is happening ... NOW. I believe an excellent example of living fully in the present can be found in the mists of history (would a female-dominated past have been called herstory?) In feudal Japan the Samurai were a warrior class that evolved to protect their respective lords. Duty was and is still a powerful and important virtue in Japan. A Samurai's duty to his lord superseded everything in his life, including his love of life itself. If it became necessary to die to fulfill his duty, he willingly gave up his life. This is not to say that they threw their lives away, only fools would do that. But if dying became necessary, they accepted death as a natural part of life and of duty. Each morning, on waking, a Samurai knew that today was quite possibly his last day. If he faced another Samurai in battle that day, there were three possible outcomes:
Their tenuous experience must have given them a concentrated and focused appreciation of the present. Their acceptance of the real possibility of immediate death must have allowed them to detach from the mundane and enjoy life ... NOW. Many soldiers will tell you that their times of combat were the happiest of their lives. When life and death are at stake, life is at its richest. Clearly though, we do not wish to live under the Samurai's dangerous circumstances in order to gain their attitudes. The trick is to learn to taste life like the Samurai without living under the sword.
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