Who are you?
If I were to ask you right now, who are you, how would you respond? Most people would start by telling me their name, a sound that they use as a title to represent all of their past experiences and accomplishments. This of course is not actually who they are, it is just a story about who they were.
You are the sensations you feel right now and nothing more. You have memories of the past, and you can make inferences about the future. Both of these constructs of the mind create the illusion that there is something other than the present moment, but that is all these are: illusions. After all, when you "think about the past," you aren't actually going back in time, but rather you are looking at a snapshot of the past, in the present moment, by way of a memory in our brain. You aren't escaping from the present moment, you are just distracted from it.
The word are is defined as the 2nd person singular present of be. If I ask you who you are, I am asking who you are right now. When put in those terms, it seems the appropriate way to answer this question is by describing your current stream of consciousness and sensations.
Isn't it quite unusual, then, that we tend to answer the question "who are you" by rattling off a list of things we have done in the past or plan to do in the future? I'm a student, and I want to be an engineer. I went to high school at so and so. I grew up in this town, but moved to that town. My mother is so and so, and my father so and so.
The world exists only in the present moment. The past and the future are constructs of the human mind, and would not exist if there were not intelligent beings capable of constructing them using memory and inferences. The present moment is all that really exists, with the past and future just being methods of representing "previous present moments." Any thought of the past must occur in the present, because the past itself is gone and unrecoverable. Any thought about the future is not a way of actually seeing the future, just constructing inferences about it in the present moment.
Defining the Problem
The fact that the future and past are just constructs of the human mind and not real is lost on modern society, where we are often more concerned with making sure we have fun events planned for tomorrow than enjoying the present moment now. Herein lies the problem created by our incredibly capable brains: we use the ability to remember the past and infer about the future in unnecessary ways, making ourselves unhappy and anxiety-riddled in the process. We are unable to enjoy the present because we cannot exit the past and future.
The brain's ability to consider the past is useful for a variety of reasons, such as the ability to remind yourself not to eat yellow snow again (because you remember what happened last time), or to remind yourself how important it is to not get fired from your job (because you remember how much it sucks to have no food).
But what happens when you begin to spend more time engaged in this "past faculty" than you do immersed in the present moment? You often become extremely unhappy and anxious, because most of this time is spent replaying negative memories and experiences. We think about decisions we made that we regret. We compare our performances and accomplishments to those of others. We waste time analyzing things that have already happened, and for no practical reason. All completely unnecessary practices that make us unhappy and incapable of being immersed in the present moment.
The future works in much the same way. The ability to make inferences about the future is helpful, but does not make the future real. When it comes to reminding yourself that you need to buy food for dinner tomorrow, the brain's ability to think ahead is incredibly useful. We can't actually see the future, but we can infer that we will be hungry based on past experiences. But when we start using this function of our brain to worry about where we will be ten years from now, when we will get a raise at work, or what we would do in the event of a loved one dying, we create unnecessary worry and stress in our lives.
The ability to think about the past and future is both an immense gift and an enormous curse. When we use this ability for practical reasons, it has a positive impact on our life. When we find ourselves unhappy even though nothing bad is actually happening to us, we have allowed this ability free reign over our mind.
If you spend a sizable chunk, or dare I say most, of your time thinking about the past and future, which are constructs of your mind, you do not live in the real world. The bad news is: you are a prisoner of your mind living in a fake world and being tortured constantly because of it. The good news is: you can escape.
Now Let's Fix It
When you feed a dog a tasty meal, so long as that dog is not in pain he will be incredibly happy and satisfied. He has no choice. A dog's emotions will always reflect his present physical sensations, because he does not have the ability to be anxious or worry about something that has already happened or has yet to happen. His brain does not have that functionality. Humans are not the same way. A human can be eating a delicious meal and be in no physical pain, and yet be extremely unhappy and anxious as a result of his incredible capability of memory and inference. It is time we became like dogs, immersed in the moment, and only used our past and future faculties for the right reasons!
When it becomes clear that the present moment is the only real aspect of the world, you will no longer be misled by the illusions created through constructs of your mind. The unhappiness that the past and future faculties of the brain creates will disappear as soon as you fully immerse yourself in the present moment, in the same way you tend to forget all of your worries when you are doing something enjoyable and you "lose yourself in the moment." What if you could lose yourself in the moment whenever you wanted?
These ideas may seem mystical at first, but they are just above-board concepts that everyone already understands. The reason we so often fail to see this is because our brains become stuck in a vicious cycle. We are so immersed in the past and future faculties that we fail to see what is right in front of us: the real nature of reality.
Nothing in this article can be considered "unique thought," in that the same basic principles underlying this article have been reiterated for thousands of years in many different ways, and for good reason. This is reality. If you are still struggling to grasp these concepts, do not give up. Understanding them will change their life.
Training your mind to only use its past and future faculties when it is appropriate is a life-long pursuit, and it begins with contemplation and meditation. I strongly suggest you follow along with this series and engage in the action plan at the end of each article to get started on the road of recovery.
Action Plan
The goal of this first article was to introduce some basic concepts of reality that are absolutely crucial for any real progress to be made towards happiness and immersion in the present moment. As such, the action plan for this article will also be very fundamental. Contemplation and meditation are perhaps the two most important actions one can perform to better understand reality and flow with it. Here is how you should get started.
- Consider how you currently spend your mental time. How often do you find yourself in the constructs of the past and future? Are you living in the real world right now?
- Consider any anxiety or worries that you have dealt with recently, or perhaps right now. Are these feelings actually a result of present unhappiness (something happening at this moment), or a result of the past and future constructs of your mind? If you were immersed in the present moment would they go away?
- Begin meditating. Today. Sit down in a chair and set a timer for 10 minutes on your smartphone. Notice the rise and fall in your chest as you breathe, and count in your head 1 for a rise, 2 for a fall, up until a count of 10, and then start over at 1. Alternatively consider using Headspace for guided meditation.
- Create a ritual of daily contemplation and self-reflection. I recommending setting this up for first thing in the morning, perhaps right before meditating. Set aside at least 20 minutes to simply sit down, with no stimulation, and think. Consider what you are doing and why you are doing it. Consider what you are thinking, and why you are thinking it.
Stay Tuned
This is part one of a series based around the idea of improving your life by simply looking at reality for what it is. We have a skewed perception of life because of our total immersion in modern technological culture, and we often don't realize how out of touch we are until it is too late. We go through life chasing a phantom that we call "happiness," and only after we have become exhausted in this chase do we see the phantom was an illusion the whole time.
In this series I will write about a variety of life-changing pieces of advice and perspectives I have come across in my life, concerning everything from the true purpose of life to techniques for making radical changes.
Talk to you again soon. Follow @tylerkmwilliams to follow this series.