The ‘past’ and ‘future’ does not let us live in the ‘present’

By Satyendra

Fear is a natural emotion.

There is almost no one who does not feel afraid of something in his life.

There are various factors which can trigger fear, but mostly it is directly connected with our expectations.

If we try to encircle fear in one question then, that question will be, ‘”Will my life happen according to my expectations or not?”

Let us explore this emotion at a deeper level.

There are three dimensions of time:

1. The past
2. The present
3. The future

Our past may have been unpleasant to us, but we do not feel afraid while thinking about our past.

We may get agitated or angry or sad, but we don’t feel afraid because we know that the past is dead and we are free from the clutches of the past. The mind knows that the past is dead, and it cannot be revisited.

Now about the present:

Actually, life is only the present moment in which we rarely live.

In our present, we keep feeling sad by thinking about something bad that happened to us in our past … or we keep fretting that how handsome we were when we were young or how rich we were … etc.etc.

Our body is in the present, but our mind keeps dwelling in the past. Like this, more than ten percent of our present moment gets wasted in the past.

Most of the remaining 90 percent we spend in dreaming about our future.

Most of our fears are born in the lap of this ‘future.’

“Will I pass in the exam?”

“Will I get a good job or not?”

“My parents are old; will they die soon?”

Such fears force us to escape from the present and our mind starts living in a future land which is illusory.

The past is a moment which cannot come back as the present.

The future is nothing but mind stuff. It does not have an existence.  There is nothing like future. Nothing can happen in future.

Whenever future has to materialise, it will have to change its form and name and will have to appear within the boundaries of the present.

And the present …

Only the present is life, in which this past and future does not let us live.

Formula 1 and the present moment

Have you ever thought as to why humans invented dangerous games like Formula 1 car racing?

A game in which the driver takes the car to the speed of 300 or 400 kilometres per hour. A slight mistake can cripple them for life or kill them.

Why do they play such a dangerous game?

Because when you drive a car at the speed of 300 or 400 km per hour, your eyes are riveted on the road and your mind is totally into the present moment. During that drive, you can neither think about your past nor dream about your future.

At that moment, only the present exists.

Although we are there for a very short period but, the thrill and the joy that we receive by being totally in the present, makes us risk our lives .

But this is a dangerous way to taste the present.

There are spiritual ways to get established in the present without risking our lives.

Life is only the present moment.

Past and future exist within the boundaries of present.

Past and future do not have a separate existence.

Hence, we must learn to live in the present.

(The column Spiritual Shades appears every Monday.)

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