Past, PRESENT--future?

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Richardmc
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Re: Past, PRESENT--future?

Post by Richardmc »

Although most of us know that becoming more honest brings many benefits, it is still difficult to achieve and it may be painful at first. The good news is that even a small improvement benefits our quality of life immediately. We are all human, and thus fallible. It is unrealistic to aspire to being honest all the time. A more sensible aim is trying to be as honest as you can right now in your present circumstances. And remember, your reality is what you are now, not what you were then. To paraphrase Maya Angelou, "When you know better, you do better."
Richardmc
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Re: Past, PRESENT--future?

Post by Richardmc »

Some of you have been following my line of thought on the future. There is an interesting article in today's (May 22) New York Times entitled "No One Knows What's Going To Happen" that may be of interest.
Richardmc
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Re: Past, PRESENT--future?

Post by Richardmc »

Honesty is a vital survival skill. It enables us to distinguish truth from bullshit, which is the essence of intelligence. Let us respect and nurture our honesty, thus becoming more conscious and alive. 'It is not necessary to seek truth, only cease to cherish opinions.'-Hsin Hsin Ming.
Richardmc
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Re: Past, PRESENT--future?

Post by Richardmc »

'It is not necessary to seek truth, only cease to cherish opinions.' Opinion is defined as 'A belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge.' Its synonyms are belief, conviction, persuasion and sentiment. They have one thing in common- they are not known to the thinker to be true at this moment. We all have opinions. This is okay, as long as we know that they are not necessarily true. In getting to know oneself, one of the most difficult tasks is in honestly determining what we know and what are our opinions. Being able to use rational thought based on what each of us knows is a valuable asset. Trying to use rational thought based even partially on one's opinions is a slippery slope. Many errors are caused by such thinking. 'Know yourself' is a path to enlightenment, available to any motivated person.
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RCSaunders
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Re: Past, PRESENT--future?

Post by RCSaunders »

Richardmc wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2019 11:31 am This is written to unify my statements and to add a couple of sentences. "There is a crucial division between the past and present vs. future. Reality happens or has happened- it does not exist in the future. If it has not yet happened, it is not real, other than as a concept. This is also true of time. Time always starts now. Future time only exists as a concept. Everything happens now- it is always now. This includes time, which always starts and happens now. Being conscious is being here now. Time passing is dynamic moments of now, now, now, etc. The future, meanwhile, NEVER arrives."
Richardmc wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2019 11:31 am The future, meanwhile, NEVER arrives."
A question. Suppose you think it's going to rain tomorrow. You go to sleep in the now you call Thursday and wake up in the now you call Friday and its raining. If it is alway now whatever is happening "now" would be happening always, both in the "now" that was Thursday and the "now" that is Friday. Since that's obviously not true, any now is not any other now. Think of the future as every new now.

Does that make sense to you?
Richardmc
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Joined: Thu Aug 15, 2019 8:21 pm

Re: Past, PRESENT--future?

Post by Richardmc »

Thanks for your posting, RCSaunders. It refers to a posting I made on Sept. 10, 2019- did you just send it? In any event, to me the present is always ever-changing moments of now, now, now. I recently heard of an old Buddhist sect, the Santrantika. They affirm that all phenomena and events exist only in the present moment. Past and future are nothing more than concepts, mental constructs.
Richardmc
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Re: Past, PRESENT--future?

Post by Richardmc »

-Perhaps the present could be better described as' an endless flow of now, where real time begins and reality happens.'
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