Living in the Present

You must live in the present,
launch yourself on every wave,
find your eternity in each moment.

I have always wondered what these words of Henry David Thoreau mean. What does it mean to live in the present? In fact, what does "present" mean? How long is one moment? Is it a second, a minute, an hour, a day, or something longer extending to eternity? At this point, the principle of relativity comes to my mind. As Albert Einstein once said, "When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity." So, in principle, "one moment" can take any meaning beginning from the smallest fraction of a second to the infinite eternity. A moment is without any beginning and without any end.

Is it possible for a person to not think about the past and the future? When Henry says, "...launch yourself on every wave...", is he himself not talking about the future in some sense? Is not every action linked to the future by its very definition? To make sense of this, we need to introduce a different meaning of "the present" or "one moment". What "the present" means is not really a period of time, but the "I" or the "Self". What it means to live in the present is to be constantly aware of our own selves. Human beings are surely aware of their bodies, minds, desires, fears and worries at most points of time. But what it means to be truly aware of the Self is to be experiencing the peace within, to be experiencing the soul within our own hearts. If this sounds a bit difficult, let me say that its worth making a sincere effort.

So now that we understand what it means to be living in the present, are we saying that its not good to think of the past and the future? As long as the mind exists, it is not even theoretically possible to not think of the past and the future. The mind exists in space and time. Just like its not possible to think of a single point in space without thinking of the whole infinite universe, it is equally impossible to think of just one single instant of time without thinking of the beginningless past and the endless future. So, the mind is bound to wander into the past and the future at all points of time. Memories and dreams are inseparable parts of the thought process. And, of course, some memories are pleasant and some are painful. Similarly, some dreams evoke positive emotions in us, and some make us worried. It is important to note that all these positive and negative states of mind are also practical realities. Any attempt at denying their existence is bound to fail. The key to a good life is acceptance and not denial. As Nathaniel Branden once said, "The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance."

So, keep remembering the historical past and keep dreaming about the distant future. But most importantly, always remember these words of Albert Camus, "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."