Why Past and Future Do Not Exist and What to Do About It?

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What is time? Searching Wikipedia I have found the definition: "Time is a dimension and measure in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of duration of events and the intervals between them.", which sounds about right.

The key word in definition is "measure", which suggests that we use time to measure something. Is there any other measure that we use every day? We measure length using meters or yards, we measure temperature using degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit.

Therefore I conclude that measure is not a real thing, it does not exist in a real world. We can not catch, hold, buy, sell, bury or eat nor time or length. We can not throw temperature away when we feel hot or cold. Therefore, measures do not exist. We invented them, and use them chiefly to communicate. We can say that it is 32 degrees Celsius outside, and everyone knows that they should wear shorts and t-shirts. We can meet someone at the cinema exactly at 8 o'clock, so we can watch a movie together.

Marcus Aurelius talks about this in his brilliant book "Meditations", in book 6, paragraph 49:

"Thou art not dissatisfied, I suppose, because thou weighest only so many litre and not three hundred. Be not dissatisfied then that thou must live only so many years and not more; for as thou art satisfied with the amount of substance which has been assigned to thee, so be content with the time."

When we think about past and future, we are exploring non-existing things. "But I have memories, you can't tell me they are not real!", was my reaction when I read about this subject. I could understand this concept about future because it did not happen yet, but I could not deny the past.

In the book The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle writes:

"Time isn't precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is."

What he is teaching us is that any point in the past was actually the present moment. The time, thirty years ago, when I was camping in Greece with my parents was the present moment then. The time my daughter was born was also the present moment. The same goes for the future. In ten minutes, it will still be now. Tomorrow will be now and anytime will be now.

I found this model a bit confusing at first, but quickly understood its value and its truthfulness. The logic is unbreakable. For me, the student of mathematics and Aristotle's logic, and on top of it a computer programmer - logic is obviously the key argument.

Following this logic, I accepted that past and future do not exist, and that all that exist is the present moment (Eckhart's "Now" with capital N). More so, every single point in the past and in the future was or will be - now. Everything that happened and will happen was or will be exactly now. To my amazement this led me to deduce that I live my whole life now, and that everyone else does, too.

As you can imagine, that conclusion destroyed my understanding of the past and the future, and eliminated time as a factor in my life. I understood that if I wanted to live my life I have to live it in the present moment. Every time my mind wonders in memories, or when it starts mindlessly thinking about what will be, I stop living. I become mindless.

I will quote Jon Kabat-Zinn's definition of mindfulness:

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and non judgmentally.”

This quote gave me the practical instruction how to live in the present moment - I have to be mindful. He also mentions the present moment, which is one of the key concepts of mindfulness. I will cover other parts of this definition in later posts.

Jon Kabat-Zinn also says:

"We take care of the future best by taking care of the present now."

He means that what we do now directly influences our future. One important thing - he talks about "taking care" of the present now. That implies action. That also implies that mindless thinking about the future is not what we should do.

Alas, we all do ruminate (definition of rumination). It is part of human nature. Whenever we are in a distressing situation we tend to obsessively think about our plight, sometimes planning ahead and sometimes thinking of the past trouble. You know when you think about some event in the future, some important business presentation to deliver. You explore every possible scenario. You rehearse endlessly what you will say and what people will ask you. You repeatedly do it, sometimes for hours. It's like a broken record playing in your head, and it is very difficult to stop.

The same thing happens when you are in a romantic relationship, particularly when there is some problem. Someone had offended you, done something wrong. You will endlessly think about what you should have said or did. You think about how you will repay the insult, over and over again.

We also react similarly in much less difficult situations, such as when someone cuts the line in the grocery store. We are feeling distressed, and think over and over what should you do. Sometimes, long after you get home, the incident comes back in your mind, and you ruminate again.

If we do not control this, it can lead to very serious conditions, such as depression disorders.

How can we avoid this? One of the methods is meditation. By meditating ten minutes a day, you can achieve to become more aware of your surroundings, your thoughts and your feelings. In this blog I will discuss some meditation techniques, in later posts.

One of the most common ways to practice meditation is to close your eyes and follow your breath. That's about it. Whenever your mind wanders, and it most certainly will, you gently bring back your attention to the breath. Try this for even three minutes, and you will see what I am talking about.

Mindfulness meditation by following your breath is extremely simple, but it is not easy by any means. You will need to practice it daily. This practice is very similar to common exercise, and the difference is you practice your brain instead your muscles. Note that I wrote "brain" and not "mind", since by meditating you are influencing your brain structure (in a positive way). 

Just to drop the possibility this is some mumbo jumbo, I will share a link to Psychology Today's article "Use Your Mind to Change Your Brain", written by  Rebecca Gladding, M.D. There is multitude of scientific proof available to substantiate meditation as a "real thing", and not some eastern religious Buddhist fabrication.

Conclusion is that we can live in the present moment, by practicing mindfulness. Return and read definition of mindfulness once more.

For me, it is beautiful way to live my life. I am by no means mindful all the time, as some meditation masters claim. I am just an ordinary guy, and I meditate daily at least 10 minutes. Even with that practice, I spend most of my day not mindful. For me it is difficult to be aware, but after a year of practice, I am living in the Now for longer intervals. I feel less stressed and I am able to "intercept" stressful thoughts and feelings and let them go. Not all of them, of course.