A messed up day, a sweet evening, and a reflective existential mood — the best conditions to write an article.
One day, while I was trying to live and struggle like anyone else, I kinda slipped and messed everything up. Thus, I was stuck in an unfavorable and annoying situation that lasted for several hours but may still continue for the next weeks.
And so I think, think, and kept thinking. For there's nothing else to do but to think. Thus, I realized that the present moment, although inevitable and undeniable, is constantly changing at the same time. Before one even finishes complaining, the present situation has already changed. Trying to grasp the present moment is like chasing the wind, you may feel it all around you but you can never catch it as you would catch a ball.
What's interesting is that the present moment is both undeniable and ever-changing. The moment one spends contemplating whether to accept or complain about the present moment, it has already passed. But that doesn't mean the present moment is an illusion, it's undeniably real yet it's also too ephemeral that no one can ever put a finger on it.
So what does this mean? It means all the past experiences you have experienced are already dead the instant the situation changed. It means that life is falling and rising at the same time, with each fall giving rise to new things, with each rise marking the fall of the old things. It means that the present moment isn't as light or heavy as the weight you think it has, it is neither light nor heavy but both heavy and weightless at the same time.
The present moment is marked with change, endless change from all levels. Yet amidst all these changes, all possibilities lead to one future.
This article isn't just another copium that is supposed to give you another reason to calm down and embrace change but it's a reflection on the true nature of reality. Conditions change, situations change, and environment change. That problem you're trying so hard to solve? It will be gone before you even managed to solve it. The lucky moment you suddenly encountered? It will be gone before you can even take a picture of it. The difficult situation you're stuck in? It will disappear before your tears can fall to the ground.
However, just because the present moment is ever-changing and ephemeral, doesn't invalidate all your efforts and suffering. Regardless how unfathomable and transient the present moment is, you will still have to experience it with your entire being. Your pain and efforts are always real until it's not.
Still, your experiences can remain on your memories and continue to affect you through your entire future, even if they were supposed to be dead and gone. For the human mind cannot help it but see life as a continuous cycle, with one event building on top of the other. It is impossible for us to construct a theory of reality that can completely ignore the effects of causality, our capacities are simply too low for it yet.
Whoa whoa what the actual duck, my head is about to explode. It's just for a moment but even imagining living a reality where life isn't seen as a continuous line but a set of independent yet interrelated events somehow makes me feel crazy. Holy sheep, what the hell did I just see? No, I have to finish this article without going insane. Hahaha I just realized my readers will either get it and have their minds completely torn apart or not understand it at all.
I wonder... just what kind of changes does a complete and sudden change in one's perception of reality make? To say that the implications and consequences are explosive would be an understatement. Those who can't accept it will feel that their sense of reality and identity violently shatters into countless pieces and their minds be turned outside out. How fun, how amazing!
So imagine and visualize the following scenario, don't hold back just because you got a little scared of what I said earlier. Don't just read it, imagine it as reality, as if it's actually true, and feel the emotions that come with it. (Haha if only I can see the heads of the readers literally explode and their brain matter splatter everywhere, just kidding.)
Imagine that you live in a world where your past doesn't shape your present and future so none of your past memories can affect your decisions. This means nothing you ever do in the present change anything important in the future either. In this world, every moment will have a life of their own, independent of the present or the future.
Because every moment is alive, you do not think "because this happened, I have become this person I am now", "because this happened, I have to do this", you only think "because this moment is no different than a new life, I will live anew, independent of the past and future".
This means that each day, you will live hundreds of different lives, all independent from one another. Every moment becomes a spontaneous expression of life and creativity, independent of all causality. You don't have to go crazy or do extreme things, you can do whatever you want, in any way you want, anytime you want while cherishing the value of each passing moment.
You don't have to feel the need to be "alive" because you know that you are already alive and everything you do is an expression of life. It only appears chaotic from the perspective of an observer but from your perspective, it makes complete perfect sense, your life is in every way stable and complete. You welcome the consequences and anticipate them with genuine curiosity, knowing that they cannot affect who you are.
And this world you are imagining, is the same world you are living now.
It's a very mind-blowing thought experiment, showing that what appears to come from the past only comes from the mind, that causality isn't an objective but a subjective phenomenon where the mind believes that whatever happens in the past would result in the future, inadvertently creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is not reality but the mind that reanimates the dead experiences of the past as zombies of the present and ghosts of the future.
There is no continuation. The story already ended long ago. The season two we are currently watching are simply products of our fantasies. What's gone is gone, there's no need to beat the dead horse by clinging to what already disappeared. It's time for us to create our new story, not just one story but hundreds and thousands of stories, as many stories we want to create.
"Humanity's' greatest obsession is clinging and extending stories that has already ended long ago."
"The past didn't repeat itself, we simply repeated it."
"Everything changes for better or worse, usually for the better."