h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What you see as solid is
desire made concrete,
and when you touch me
it's my dreams you feel.
This voice you hear is
history and hope, the smoke
of fragrant memories you smell,
this taste, my past.

That which is, I am
eternally. No tracks from where
no path leads here, but
simply being, present.

Mmm -

Really, living in the present is no picnic. So no wonder that people prefer to live in the past and in hope for the future.

Living here and now is really hard work.

I keep working on it. Some days are better than others . . .

az

I saw the film '28 Days' yesterday and that was all about how difficult people find it to live in the present and why people seek solace in drugs and booze. etc.

hi Zarquon,

People find solace in all kinds of things, including religion. Yes, some use drugs or alcohol but some others use lots of coffee or they might comfort themselves by eating lots of junk food.

I am always curious as to WHY it is just so hard to live a life on a daily basis and stay in the present situation we are in.

The symptoms (abuse of drugs, alcohol, food, etc) are really only symptoms of the real problem.

az

Yes, so am I. I agree there are other distractions, including sex, shopping, reading books, etc.

I am reminded of the poem (Ted Hughes?)

The f*** you up, your mum and dad
They do not mean to, but they do.
They give you all the faults they had
And leave some extra, just for you!

Sound a bit like 'original sin' to me. Yet it happens. Parents pass on their fears, phobias, intolerances - as well as their vision, love, generosity and altruism.

Ho-hum!

Very Nice HNM

They f**k you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

That's Philip Larkin in a black mood.

Curious thing that all recreations, from holidays to booze to blockbuster movies and books, consist of getting "out of it" in one way or another.

But they were f***ed up in their turn
By fools in old style hats and coats
Who half the time were soppy stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man .... etc.

Ah, wrong poet!

True, Recumbentman.

I had a discussion today about what it is we are all trying to avoid. I was told that we have a sort of shell, consisting of stuff from our past and also our desires. This is painful for us to see or be aware of, so we try to hide from it. Once we see it, it makes it possible for us to start to dissolve it and see ourselves for the miracle that we are.

Ah yes.

Alan Watts: The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.

Excellent.

The problem with "trying" to live in the present is exactly in the "trying." It is like the old Gurdjieffian trap of "self-remembering," trying to remember to be present. It becomes a quick route to catatonia ( and who wants to live there!!)

The very "trying" requires a splitting-off of part of one's awareness to be a sort of watch-dog. And then one rapidly needs another watch-dog to watch that one, in case it gets distracted. And then that one needs one, and another and so on and on.

The way out of this trap is to move out of the merry-go-round of duality ( see Dying Haiku thread and Wittgenstein quote ), out of space-time perception, and into being. How? Not easily or immediately,
but by daily meditation of a sort which allows simply "being" for a space of time. ( I confess to doing TM every day for the past 30 or so years ) But Vipassana and other "calm abiding," present-sitting meditations locate the same space.

Gradually, the awareness is trained to be spontaneously present, rather than numbed out, distracted, conditioned, and so on.

What then arises is the miraculous quality of the ordinary, the sheer mystery of the most mundane events, like sensation, thought, perception, breathing, people, the world and so on. "Life" becomes, in all its bizarre manifestations, from exquisite beauty to mind-boggling horror, a breath-taking wonder.