So there was a vision. In it the unfolding of all the action and activity of life is seen as a visual pattern. It’s a pattern in and of the present moment. It’s looks like a vastly complex fractal paisley, a Mandelbrot fractal overlaid into curved paisley teardrop outlines. It shimmers with constant change. Let’s call it “The Pattern”.
In The Pattern everything happens. All the infinite variety of everything occurring throughout the universe is contained in this pattern. With the fractal nature of the pattern we can zoom down into levels of detail, down to our individual selves and the details of the patterns unfolding in our lives. We can zoom out to a broader view, broader than the individual, the patterns of a clan or village or nation or species or the broad patterns of all of life. As a fractal shape the patterns repeat, smaller and larger levels showing the same patterns.
What do these patterns indicate? It becomes clear that there are multiple levels or dimensions contained, some corresponding to domains of human experience like relationships, activity, emotions, thoughts.
But another level of The Pattern emerged, regarding time. The Past and the Future appear as just another dimension of the infinitely-complex-ever-changing pattern of life. Another axis along which life plays out, like those of the physical, emotional, energetic domains.
And so the Future and the Past are contained within The Pattern. Everything is contained in it, and it only exists right here in the present moment. The Future and the Past no longer appear as distant lands, but as just another aspect of the variety of the present moment.
The strength and clarity of the vision were such that it formed a new way of perceiving the world. After this happened the future and the past have naturally become less relevant and less important in my thoughts. Oh I still do a certain amount of planning for the future, mostly for the practical purpose of reassuring others that I haven’t totally given up on life. Nothing excessive and there is no obsessing over anything in the past or future.
Instead of the past and future focus turns to the Present Moment. Right Now as the location of all that happens in the material world.
No Past
I still have memories, good memories, bad memories, painful and embarrassing and beautiful memories. But at a high level they’re just memories, nothing but thoughts, without any other reality here in the present moment.
At a deeper level it’s useful to think of memories stored within us as something like samskaras, mental impressions that form a default way of thinking about a certain thing or category. Samskara is a Sanskrit word, and a very useful term to be aware of here, check out the link above or research the term. The past exists only in the form of samskaras and the current arrangement of the universe.
No Future
I still make rudimentary plans for various futures which seem likely. But that’s mostly an old habit still hanging on, not something I currently think is a Good Idea.
What’s a plan anyway? In practical terms it boils down to a process of figuring out what to do. Doing something only happens in the Present Moment, so plans are really just decision-making tools telling us what to do now.
Does the future exist? Where? I see the future only in people’s minds, and as far as the future is embedded in the current state of the universe.
The Present Moment
Let’s keep this focus on the Present Moment as the location where everything happens. Everything you do, you do in the Present Moment. The future and the past are much smaller, just little pieces of the present, our memories and fears.
What Now?
It’s a relief to finally manage to put The Past and The Future into their proper perspective, as just thought patterns in the mind. Such a relief to find that this diminishes most sources of Fear and Worry and Doubt.
As a practice or exercise or experiment, try re-framing all your thoughts about the past and future this way: “The past and the future do not exist, they are not here, I can’t point to them anywhere but in my thoughts and in the current state of the universe. Instead I should focus more on everything in this Present Moment and how it affects what I decide to do.”