"Living in the present"?

Originally Posted by ocean breeze

I'm not sure if there is a past mind or a mind at all. Or whether i'm dreaming or awake. Like how things exist in a dream but become nonexistent when you are awake.

The only thing we can be absolutely certain of is we're experiencing beings.

As Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am", meaning he could doubt everything, including his own body but the one thing he could not doubt was he was experiencing something.

The only thing we can be absolutley certain of is awareness. We could be plugged into the Matrix. LOL!

Or you could think of all reality as God's dream, meaning you are actually God as everything in your dreams is actually you.

[ocean breeze]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

The only thing we can be absolutely certain of is we're experiencing beings.

As Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am", meaning he could doubt everything, including his own body but the one thing he could not doubt was he was experiencing something.

The only thing we can be absolutley certain of is awareness. We could be plugged into the Matrix. LOL!

Or you could think of all reality as God's dream, meaning you are actually God as everything in your dreams is actually you.

Thank you for your response. I enjoyed your input and its something i can ponder on and perhaps apply.

[lemex]

Originally Posted by inavalan

It may sound like heresy to some, but "living in the present" seems to me inflicting a "numbing of the mind". Could this be a / the reason for which we incarnated here? It doesn't seem likely. Some gurus call for "taming of the mind", but I believe that they miss the point, and a more likely purpose is "training of the mind". We need to get better at creating reality, not at idling our creativity.

As pointed out we create reality, not the presence of it but its unfolding and ripples. By living in the present and being aware in active thinking we will be better at creating it if we remain mindful. We create a lot of the input unknowingly that forms the reality. We invoke reality. ie outcome.

Masters and gurus create their reality to and what I notice and hear about such people are they are too withdrawn from others and do nothing about suffering of others, not even involved fixing problems of the world. It's as though there are written rules to follow. They are very idle. Living in the present is being in the present and does not numb the mind, but troubles the mind, living in present and "seeing" makes one want to numb the mind. So being in the present is not all there is but it is also about getting involved. Living in the present is not living in the past, each side has the same desire imo. I mention this because this is something I have seen and heard for many years. Nothing seems perfect :)

[Jyotir]

Originally Posted by inavalan

It may sound like heresy to some, but "living in the present" seems to me inflicting a "numbing of the mind". Could this be a / the reason for which we incarnated here? It doesn't seem likely. Some gurus call for "taming of the mind", but I believe that they miss the point, and a more likely purpose is "training of the mind". We need to get better at creating reality, not at idling our creativity.

It's the mind that artificially divides up reality - lives regretfully and retrospectively in the past attached to past experience - thus killing the present.

Its the mind that based on those attachments, expects and demands the fulfillment of desires from the future, killing the present.

There are superior faculties in human beings that are the real sources of creativity.

~ J

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by shivatar

so there are sages who have been meditating for 30 years, like 8 hours or more a day. but apparently you think you know better than them? because you have a feeling?

just think about that.

What a waste of 'time'!

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by lemex

Masters and gurus create their reality to and what I notice and hear about such people are they are too withdrawn from others and do nothing about suffering of others, not even involved fixing problems of the world. It's as though there are written rules to follow. They are very idle.

This is perhaps an over-generalisation. We can read of many masters and gurus who spend a lot of time dealing with the problems of their followers, while others build schools and hospitals for those in need.

Yes, there are those who sit for years in caves seeing very few people, but I would not call them idle. By raising their own consciousness they help to raise the consciousness of humanity - everyone is connected. Some people perform very visible service to others, going out and giving practical help. Others serve in less visible ways but their service is just as valuable.

Peace.

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by Jyotir

It's the mind that artificially divides up reality - lives regretfully and retrospectively in the past attached to past experience - thus killing the present.

Its the mind that based on those attachments, expects and demands the fulfillment of desires from the future, killing the present.

There are superior faculties in human beings that are the real sources of creativity.

~ J

There are minds (and hearts) which learn from past successes and failures how to project and so seek to 'create' even better realities in the future by way of choices and corollary actions in the present. IMO, You paint a negatively slanted picture based on instances of 'foolishness' (living in 'regret' and being motivated by 'greed' etc.) here, J. This is like someone saying 'fire' is 'bad' because many people get 'burnt' by it. You are misusing your (supposedly) 'superior' faculties to reinforce negatively slanted perceptions and opinions, similar to those 'advanced' by the 'story' of Even's and Adam's 'disobedience' and consequent 'punishment', again just my opinion.

[Jyotir]

The nature of mind is that it is complicated/complicating, indirect, separative, divisive, and so ultimately a false limited cognition. It’s nature is to separate and process based on division as inherent principle. It is not subjective, unitary, whole in its means and nature. It characteristically does not and cannot know by direct subjective identity what it by nature necessarily sees & experiences indirectly and objectively as “other”, not self.

Mind relies on material sense perception for cognition, e.g. superficial appearance of form without seeing underlying cause - it cannot by nature. Thought likewise, is simply the movement of the mind’s attachment to the incessant shifting focus between these apparently separated and apparently divided objective “forms/identities” of a divided experience.

The derivative separative indirect process of logic, reason, rationalization, are dominant artifice; the primary modality which is based on the mind’s necessarily objective/separative and therefore necessarily false premise of “facts” and subsequent rationalization by logical process, etc., seems to arrive (so it reasons!) at “truth” through that process, which is necessarily false, limited, partial, and distorted.

Here is a good example of rationalization and projection of attributes that are not available in mind per se, noting that what is described below as "instances of foolishness" are intrinsically the actual means and real consequences of mind, as it is what it does...

Originally Posted by davidsun

There are minds (and hearts) which learn from past successes and failures how to project and so seek to 'create' even better realities in the future by way of choices and corollary actions in the present. IMO, You paint a negatively slanted picture based on instances of 'foolishness' (living in 'regret' and being motivated by 'greed' etc.) here, J. This is like someone saying 'fire' is 'bad' because many people get 'burnt' by it. You are misusing your (supposedly) 'superior' faculties to reinforce negatively slanted perceptions and opinions, similar to those 'advanced' by the 'story' of Even's and Adam's 'disobedience' and consequent 'punishment', again just my opinion.

~ J

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by Jyotir

[indent][color="Navy"]
The nature of mind is ... etc. Mind relies on material sense perception for cognition, e.g. superficial appearance of form without seeing underlying cause -

Not my mind, J. Maybe yours though, possibly because of what you believe to be the 'reality' of the situation in said regard, which belief my 'mind' perceives as being negatively slanted, as I have said.

Besides 'sense' perpections, mind has the capacity to process logical premises and related 'input', which your mind apparently (to me!) does in a 'selective' (biased?) fashion, in my logical (I think) view.