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issue with living in the moment

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  • #102588
    efendi
    Participant

    Hi, let me introduce myself. I am 30 years old and to be honest I am not a buddhist. But I am very interested in buddhism since I read about 4 noble of truths in wikipedia. Currently, I am into gaining more knowledge about “reality and fabrication”.

    the fabrication kept me away from current moment. It is like living in current moment but dreaming about something else. To make it worse, the fabrication I created mostly negative/stressful one. thanks god since I am able to differentiate between reality and fabrication now, I am able to draw myself back into reality. it help improve my quality of life.

    now what puzzle me is about living in the moment itself. It sort of not caring about future and not learning from past. is it okay to be like that? somehow it sounds like living in comfort zone.

    #102592
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear efendi:

    I am not a Buddhist either but I am very passionate about the principle of living according to reality, of stripping off delusion, fantasy, what you call “fabrication” from what is real, and seeing reality for its bare minimum. I practice this daily.
    I believe this is the way to sane living and mental well being.

    As to your last two lines. Again, I am not a Buddhist and I do not try to fit my thinking to any dogma, any “should be”, and so, I am not religious. i do not belong to any religion or any institution, not by choice. From this point of view, looking at your two lines: I believe it is unwise to not learn from the past. It is very important to learn from the past. This is why we think, naturally about the past- we are meant to improve on it. Lots of people obsess about the past, not learning from it, but being tormented by it- that is not healthy. Regarding not caring about the future: I don’t think it is possible or desirable. It is unhealthy to.. again, obsess about the future, being so anxious that one is paralyzed by fear. But it is wise to prepare for a better future, make the future an improved past, so to speak.

    Regarding “comfort zone”- if the comfort is based on fabrication/ delusion/ distorted thinking, then that kind of comfort will be short lived and damaging in the long run. If comfort is based on reality, that kind of comfort is worth pursuing.

    anita

    #102698
    efendi
    Participant

    Thanks anita for sharing your thought and experience. It never occurred to me before the so called obsession. When I obsess about certain event in the past or about certain scenario in the future, I am tied to that object very tightly. That obsession make me anxious, angry. I cannot enjoy the present moment. Now after I think about it again, I often obsess about many things. For example, when I do not know an answer to some question, I keep thinking about the correct answer time and time again. Because of that, I can’t keep up with the next incoming question. This is really undesireable.

    back to the topic, when we do meditation, we should let go of the past & future completely. not planning for future & not reflecting the past. Perhaps, we can’t really live in the moment when doing other activities outside meditation. Please enlighten me if I made incorrect assumption.

    #102701
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear efendi:

    We can live in the moment when we do activities that require our full attention, activities that are not automatic for us (like driving a car), such as learning a new skill, and even watching a suspense movie, a passive activity.

    Living meditation, or Mindfulness, is about performing the automatic activities with attention to what we are doing. For example, washing dishes, paying attention to the sound the dishes and the water make, the feel of the soap and the warm water on our hands.

    So two things: there are activities, as you know, that by their nature require our attention. And then Mindfulness can be practiced for activities we do automatically, activities that don’t require our attention.

    As in meditation, in the practice of mindfulness, your mind will drift to the past and future automatically. The practice is about bringing your attention gently to the present moment, to the experience of the present moment with your five senses, again and again. It is important not to see focus on the present as performance and judge your success or failure, but to accept that the mind will drift, as is its nature, and then patiently and gently bring the focus back to the present.

    anita

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