Being in the Moment IS NOT Nihilism

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  • Seiryu
    Member
    • Sep 2010
    • 620

    Being in the Moment IS NOT Nihilism

    Hi!
    I was stalking my friends facebook page (since I have no life ops: ) and I found that he had taken some of my comments to one of his post and made a note out of it. These were some responses to a debate he was having over whether being fully present was a form of nihilism. And a debate against the phrase “children are our future” Anyway here they are, feel free to throw stuff at me if you think I have no idea what I am saying *Getting in ninja position*

    ~Being in the present moment and living for the now is not Nihilism at all. Quite the contrary. When you are truly present and face the world as is, it is no longer about one self but about everything else, because when you face the present moment and accept it, where can one really be found? Thinking only about the future is more a form of Nihilism because it is denying the only part of reality that actually exist; and that IS now. We can never experience the future; we can never make it to the future. All we can experience is the now. When the future we want comes; it will not be perceived as the future, but as the now.

    The future will always remain the future, out of our reach. So if we keep thinking the children are our future, or we are reaching for a better future, then that goal can never be reached, because we can never reach the ‘future’. We should make THIS moment a better place. Make THIS moment a better place for our children since this moment is the only time period we have control over. If not now; when?

    And if we adults stop worrying about the future and get our act together now, then we wouldn’t have to put the responsibility onto our children and have them clean up our mess. Instead we can make the world a place where the children can be happy, safe, and freed from worry. Saying the children are our future sounds like we are just hoping they will fix everything so we adults don’t have to do anything.

    The future we want can be found right here, right now. We do not have to wait for it to come. It will not come from anywhere but where we make it. All future is born out of the present moment. Make this moment a good one, and the next one will follow.~

    Gassho


    Seiryu
    Humbly,
    清竜 Seiryu
  • Nenka
    Member
    • Aug 2010
    • 1239

    #2
    Re: Being in the Moment IS NOT Nihilism

    Thank you.

    Gassho,

    Jennifer

    Comment

    • Jundo
      Treeleaf Founder and Priest
      • Apr 2006
      • 40535

      #3
      Re: Being in the Moment IS NOT Nihilism

      Hey Seiryu,

      Sometimes "being in the moment" or "at one with the present" means that ... we may be, right this moment in the present, thinking and planning for the future or remembering/reflecting on the past! :shock:

      Sounds strange, perhaps. But otherwise we could not live as human beings without learning from the past, planning something for later.

      To be "one with the moment" (and even if, as we can be in Buddhism, "beyond all thought of life and death") ... still means that, right this moment, we can be sitting in an insurance agents office buying life insurance for something that may happen tomorrow or next year so our kids can have money to get through school! 8) That is a "children's future" I need to take care of today! That is what is right before our eyes, and our very eyes too ... right now. Be AT ONE with that!

      What we must not be is a prisoner of the past ... tied up in it, unable to let it go. However, we can learn from it, or seek to repair or make amends for events a day or 100 years ago (I just visited Nagasaki's atomic bomb museum the other day, and certainly the "past" ... its history and wounds ... is alive and felt in the present moment by me in seeing that).

      What we must not be is a prisoner of the future ... tied up in our fears, future goals, "what ifs" and too tightly held dreams. Nonetheless, I work hard now and (hopefully) tomorrow too for a better future.

      Even a Buddha, though timeless ... has a past and a future, lessons learned, places to go and people to see.

      Something like that.

      Gassho, J
      ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

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