> On Aug 20, 3:09 pm, Executive Function
>
> hotmail.com> wrote:

>> If I were constantly to live in the
>> now then I would have developed absolutely no ability to communicate
>> nor make practical improvements to my life.  I like my freedom too
>> much to constantly *just* live in the now.  There's a place in the now
>> for consideration of narrower and more limited thoughts, such as
>> planning for the future, and considering what can be learned from the
>> past.

>
> You are by no means unique in this respect, but probably the biggest
> problem facing any student of this subject is a woeful failure to
> understand the simplest elements of it, along with a corresponding
> complete conviction that they do, confidently trotting out trite and
> meaningless platitudes, which leads to stifling and blind restrictions
> such as the one gripping you in the above paragraph.
>
> When you "plan for the future", when you "consider what can be learned
> from the past", when you "make practical improvements to [your] life",
> all these things are happening in the now. It is perfectly possible to
> do all these things while "living in the now". One can "live in the
> now" just as easily by paying attention to what is happening inside
> your head, right now, as one can by paying attention to what is
> happening outside your head, right now, and to suggest otherwise
> demonstrates that you don't understand what "living in the now" means,
> although as I said you're in good company on that point, including the
> individual you're responding to.
>
> The important element is to pay attention to something real. The
> pictures that your thoughts generate are not "real" in the sense that
> they are representations of the world, not the world themselves, but
> the thoughts themselves are real, and the process of having thoughts
> is itself real. When you think, there is a real thought, whether or
> not you believe there to be something real that is having that thought
> or whether that thought is existing by itself. To imagine that one can
> only "live in the now" whilst in some mystical non-thinking trance is
> just that, an imagination, and a belief in it - in other words, a
> failure to pay attention to what is real, and to instead pay attention
> to what is unreal - will make it all but impossible for you to achieve
> success in this subject.
>
> You don't need to banish thoughts altogether - you only need to cease
> believing in the reality of the world they create. "Living in the now"
> is perfectly compatible with paying attention to a real thought about
> the future, and it's perfectly compatible with acting on that thought.
> It's only when you start mistaking the thought world - the imaginary
> world - for the real world that you run into problems, because then
> you're not paying attention to reality. It's initially a lot easier to
> pay attention to reality while in a non-thinking state than it is
> while in a thinking state, but that's only a question of practice.
>
> Erwin Hessle, 8=3