The Present .

[china]

The present is conflict and sorrow, with an occasional flash of passing joy. The present weaves back and forth into the past and into the future, and so the present is restless. The present is the result of the past, our being is founded upon it. How can you understand the past save through its result, the present? You cannot dig into the past by any other instrument than the one you have, which is the present. The present is the doorway to the past and if you wish, to the future. What you are is the result of the past, of yesterday, and to understand yesterday you must begin with today. To understand yourself, you must begin with yourself as you are today.

Without comprehending the present which is rooted in the past, you will have no understanding. The present misery of man is understood when through the door of the present he is able to be aware of the causes that have produced it. You cannot brush aside the present in trying to understand the past but only through awareness of the present does the past begin to unfold itself. The present is tragic and bloody; surely not by denying it, not by justifying it will we understand it. We have to face it as it is and uncover the causes that have brought about the present. How you regard the present, how your mind is conditioned to it, will reveal the process of the past; if you are prejudiced, nationalistic, if you hate, what you are now will pervert your understanding of the past; your passion, ill will and ignorance, what you are now, will corrupt your understanding of the causes that have led to the present. In understanding yourself, as you are now, the roll of the past unfolds itself.

The present is of the highest importance; the present, however tragic and painful, is the only door to Reality. The future is the continuance of the past through the present; through understanding the present is the future transformed. The present is the only time for understanding for it extends into yesterday and into tomorrow. The present is the whole of time; in the seed of the present is the past and the future; the past is the present and the future is the present. The present is the Eternal, the Timeless. But we regard the present, the now, as a passage to the past or to the future; in the process of becoming, the present is a means to an end and thereby loses its immense significance. The becoming creates continuity, everlastingness, but it is not the Timeless, the Eternal. Craving to become weaves the pattern of time. Have you not experienced in moments of great ecstasy the cessation of time; there is no past, no future but an intense awareness, a timeless present? Having experienced such a state greed begins its activities and re-creates time, recalling, reviving, looking to the future for further experience, rearranging the pattern of time to capture the Timeless. Thus greed, the becoming, holds thought-feeling in the bondage of time.

So be aware of the present, however sorrowful or pleasant; then it will unfold itself as a time process and if thought-feeling can follow its subtle and devious ways and transcend them, then that very extensional awareness is the timeless present. Look only to the present, neither to the past nor to the future, for love is the present, the Timeless.....Believe it or not .

 

[BigLou]

Oooh, you are one deep dude.
Do you come up with all this stuff yourself?

 

[quandary121]

Hello China i think you have got it wrong here how can you say quote (Look only to the present, neither to the past nor to the future) it is only by looking at the past, that we can be thankful for the present, if we did not then we would make many of the mistakes of the past over and over again ,living in the now is ok but consequences for our past actions must be given credence or nothing is sacred is it ,we would never evolve as we have, hopefully better and wiser.:?:

 

[china]

Oooh, you are one deep dude.

It is you my friend who is "deep"; I prefer to be shallow .

Do you come up with all this stuff yourself?

No ,it is a fact shared by many but you have to be "shallow" to grasp and share it with others .

 

[BigLou]

It is you my friend who is "deep"; I prefer to be shallow .


No ,it is a fact shared by many but you have to be "shallow" to grasp and share it with others .

Nah, I'm water-level, you're deep.:-|

 

[thomaska]

I was gonna post but the PRC said I wasn't cute enough.

 

[BigLou]

I was gonna post but the PRC said I wasn't cute enough.

Lol, nice one.
What a scam that was, hey? And the fireworks too, pathetic.

 

[Socrates the Greek]

China, nothing personal just my thoughts on these phrases.

China: The present is the result of the past
Socrates the Greek: These two are twins; the assertion here is that the present is a derivative of the past, which means that if we use the past as a compass with reference to mistakes and successes we will be able to come up with a favorable outcome.
The present is the doorway to the past and if you wish, to the future.




China: The present weaves back and forth into the past and into the future, and so the present is restless.

Socrates the Greek: I don’t want to convert this statement sounding like an aquarium, but it does…. Please don’t take it the wrong way…..


China: to understand yesterday you must begin with today

Socrates the Greek: I beg to defer here, yesterday is past tense with much more information than today meaning (real time). In order for one to get logical guidance for the day, they would have to resort to the library on their past experiences, so, I would personally remove or rearrange the phrase above.
Just my opinion!

China: To understand yourself, you must begin with yourself as you are today
Socrates the Greek: To understand ones self, one must begin from the very beginning after birth, because the ocean of experiences available to each and every one of our lives is fundamentally important in recognizing our true identity, today is not complete to be able to facilitate the correct logical environment we are loking for....

;-)




.

 

[china]

quandary121

Hello China i think you have got it wrong here how can you say quote (Look only to the present, neither to the past nor to the future) it is only by looking at the past, that we can be thankful for the present, if we did not then we would make many of the mistakes of the past over and over again ,living in the now is ok but consequences for our past actions must be given credence or nothing is sacred is it ,we would never evolve as we have, hopefully better and wiser.

_

_________________

ok my friend let's try this
The known can only know known ;known can not know the unknown.
Among past, present and future which one is the unknown ?

 

[BigLou]

The future is obviously unknown. And dont lay any of your theological b.s. on me.

 

[china]

Hey big lou ,watch your language in my thread ,watch it .
Big China

The future is obviously unknown.

It obviously is known so don't give me some sacramental bs mister .

 

[quandary121]

quandary121


_________________

ok my friend let's try this
The known can only know known ;known can not know the unknown.
Among past, present and future which one is the unknown ?

China you go for the Obvious and pick wrongly...:lol:
The answer is {The Past} as we die what we know is forgotten and has to be learned again...
So MY ANSWER IS "PAST" There is of course the argument "OLDER" people have more things to forget...???? so this too would strengthen my prospective ..about it being "PAST" ;-)

 

[talloola]

the future is known, because we can plan it,(in our own life),and also we can control it,
with the exception of unbenounced circumstances, which are out of our control.

I watched a profile a few years ago showing a man, who had completely lost his
ability to remember the past or able to vision the future, only the present, (right now), don't
ever wish that on anybody, his life was very very frustrating to see, as he was
only slightly familiar with the person who was constantly there, looking after him,
but he constantly contradicted everything, and treated everyone as though he was
just meeting them for the first time, then instantly forgot them.
I will never forget him.

 

[china]

talloola ,

the future is known, because we can plan it,(in our own life),and also we can control it,
with the exception of unbenounced circumstances, which are out of our control.

What a great post ; yove obsere , think ,reason and come to conclusion and it is your 'discovery' not anyone else.Majority of the forum participants look for a ready answer ;there aren't any ready answers in real life , you have to find your own truth according to no one .

 

[Northboy]

The present is conflict and sorrow, with an occasional flash of passing joy. The present weaves back and forth into the past and into the future, and so the present is restless. The present is the result of the past, our being is founded upon it. How can you understand the past save through its result, the present? You cannot dig into the past by any other instrument than the one you have, which is the present. The present is the doorway to the past and if you wish, to the future. What you are is the result of the past, of yesterday, and to understand yesterday you must begin with today. To understand yourself, you must begin with yourself as you are today.

Without comprehending the present which is rooted in the past, you will have no understanding. The present misery of man is understood when through the door of the present he is able to be aware of the causes that have produced it. You cannot brush aside the present in trying to understand the past but only through awareness of the present does the past begin to unfold itself. The present is tragic and bloody; surely not by denying it, not by justifying it will we understand it. We have to face it as it is and uncover the causes that have brought about the present. How you regard the present, how your mind is conditioned to it, will reveal the process of the past; if you are prejudiced, nationalistic, if you hate, what you are now will pervert your understanding of the past; your passion, ill will and ignorance, what you are now, will corrupt your understanding of the causes that have led to the present. In understanding yourself, as you are now, the roll of the past unfolds itself.

The present is of the highest importance; the present, however tragic and painful, is the only door to Reality. The future is the continuance of the past through the present; through understanding the present is the future transformed. The present is the only time for understanding for it extends into yesterday and into tomorrow. The present is the whole of time; in the seed of the present is the past and the future; the past is the present and the future is the present. The present is the Eternal, the Timeless. But we regard the present, the now, as a passage to the past or to the future; in the process of becoming, the present is a means to an end and thereby loses its immense significance. The becoming creates continuity, everlastingness, but it is not the Timeless, the Eternal. Craving to become weaves the pattern of time. Have you not experienced in moments of great ecstasy the cessation of time; there is no past, no future but an intense awareness, a timeless present? Having experienced such a state greed begins its activities and re-creates time, recalling, reviving, looking to the future for further experience, rearranging the pattern of time to capture the Timeless. Thus greed, the becoming, holds thought-feeling in the bondage of time.

So be aware of the present, however sorrowful or pleasant; then it will unfold itself as a time process and if thought-feeling can follow its subtle and devious ways and transcend them, then that very extensional awareness is the timeless present. Look only to the present, neither to the past nor to the future, for love is the present, the Timeless.....Believe it or not .

Hi China,

I see this as an articulation of the Law of Cause and Effect.

We live in our generation the "effects" of our parent's "causes".

Every generation does, its the way of things.

 

[china]

China you go for the Obvious and pick wrongly...

The answer is {The Past} as we die what we know is forgotten and has to be learned again...
So MY ANSWER IS "PAST" There is of course the argument "OLDER" people have more things to forget...???? so this too would strengthen my prospective ..about it being "PAST"

The question was which is the "unknown "one and the answer is the (obvious one ) the present .
We live in he past ,the past is the only thing that we know ,whatever we do (in the present is something we have done before ( past , the known) if it wasn't ,how would we know what we are doing.All knowledge and experience is accumulated in the memory ;memory is past, memory is thought ;thought is past, knowledge is past ; our brain cells are past , we function in past, we are the past.Future is also a known;future is a past .

 

[franc]

The present is conflict and sorrow, with an occasional flash of passing joy.

Or is it joy with intermittent bouts of conflict and sorrow?

The present is the result of the past, our being is founded upon it. How can you understand the past save through its result, the present?

How can one understand the present without knowing the past?

To understand yourself, you must begin with yourself as you are today.

You must also end with yourself as you are today.

The present misery of man is understood when through the door of the present he is able to be aware of the causes that have produced it.

Misery comes through the understanding of what one could be, what one is not.

We have to face it as it is and uncover the causes that have brought about the present.

We must also devise causes for future effects f we are to overcome our problems.

How you regard the present, how your mind is conditioned to it, will reveal the process of the past; if you are prejudiced, nationalistic, if you hate, what you are now will pervert your understanding of the past; your passion, ill will and ignorance, what you are now, will corrupt your understanding of the causes that have led to the present.

What you are now will always influence your understanding of the past.

The present is the Eternal, the Timeless. But we regard the present, the now, as a passage to the past or to the future; in the process of becoming, the present is a means to an end and thereby loses its immense significance.

The past is the means, the present the end; this is understanding.

Thus greed, the becoming, holds thought-feeling in the bondage of time.

Everything is the becoming, greed desires to become.

 

[quandary121]

Among past, present and future which one is the unknown ?

fair enough i read it wrongly, the unknown is of course your future but you can plan your future knowing what you do from the past,so that does sort of make the future known ,because of past experience,tell you what you can expect from the future .

 

[china]

fair enough i read it wrongly, the unknown is of course your future but you can plan your future knowing what you do from the past,so that does sort of make the future known ,because of past experience,tell you what you can expect from the future .

No ,the future as far as time is concern is very well known .eg..i,ll have a lunch at McDonald's i an hour ,I'll see you tonight , I,ll go to China in a year and make some money.
All these thoughts come from your memory - the past .Future is past .
Past is the known,
The present is now ,the actual , from moment to moment .These moments are unknown .

 

[quandary121]

No ,the future as far as time is concern is very well known .eg..i,ll have a lunch at McDonald's i an hour ,I'll see you tonight , I,ll go to China in a year and make some money.
All these thoughts come from your memory - the past .Future is past .
Past is the known,
The present is now ,the actual , from moment to moment .These moments are unknown .

But the future is uncertain, we may think we know what will happen, and we may plan for things too happen,none of which we can be certain of will indeed happen,and the present is just a very minute fraction of the future.