Thoughts on Thinking

"When somebody persuades me that I am wrong, I change my mind. What do you do?" John Maynard Keynes

"If you're unhappy with your life, change your thinking." Charles Fillmore

"The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it." Eckhart Tolle

"People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them." Epictetus

"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates

"Consciousness is a terrible thing to waste." PunditGeorge

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Now! Isn't it wonderful?

Time is a mischievous conundrum common to everyone. Past, Present, Future – our awareness of linear time. For instance:

Past = Conscious memory of what I’ve experienced (a.k.a. history)

Present = Me, now, where “I am” in experience and consciousness

Future = What I expect I will experience; what will be, for me

But what is Time?

The measured interval of movement between two points. The measure of getting out of your car and entering the store; the measure of your reading the first line of this column and the final word.

In one hour you “move” millions of miles according to calculations of the movement of our galaxy ( and that doesn’t consider the passage of the 24 hours for one rotation of the planet, or movement around the sun.) Big difference between the “Time” of the galaxy and the same interval in which earth moves about 25,000 miles all the while you and I sit still.

What about that meeting, social event, movie, whatever, where you felt one hour had passed, looked at a clock, and a mere five minutes had elapsed?

Remember the “Time” for a five year old awaiting Christmas and the same passage of calendar days for a parent? Time is dammed up for the former but flooding for the latter.

Clock, calendar, pendulum – we’ve found many ways to account for movement from a here to a there in our physical universe. But these are not time. For instance:

When did you last look at your watch wanting to know what time it was a couple of hours ago? Or, when did you look at your watch wanting to know what time it will be in a couple of hours? Your watch can’t do that. All your watch can do is provide you the “time” as it is now. From “now” you can recall what you did “now” before and predict what you will do in the “now” later. But there is the reality of Now. That’s where we are. That’s where we have been. That’s where will always be.

“But, George,” says one, “I know about time. I was once ten years old. Now I am much older. Time has passed.” Yes. But that’s not the point. Where are you? You are now. It doesn’t matter the memory of “now;” you are conscious and living only now. That’s why it’s frustrating to believe that “in the future I will be happy,” or “when this or that happens, then I can be happy.”

Happiness
is wherever you are
doing whatever you are doing
at any given moment.

Now. Isn’t it wonderful? It’s the greatest tool we have to create a more joyful life, now.

We live now. Either we enjoy our life now, or we place conditions on that joy. If you aren’t pleased with your “Now” then call forth the thought of how you would like to feel, what you would like to experience. That’s a power not available for the “past” and useless for the “future.”

This moment, now, you have the ability to move your mind to the best feeling idea or concept available. Regardless of personal circumstance, there is something to be appreciated, honored, that would result in a smile. That’s the power of Now.

Wow! Now! The ability to decide what you think. “Good or bad” that Now Power creates the “next moment” of attraction. Birds of a feather flock together. Thought birds of the past can’t change and those imagined in the future can’t fly until they flock Now.

Now. Isn’t it wonderful?

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