lost and found
forget the grand picture
there is no grand picture
only a succession of moments
and in each moment you have choices
all very simple
simply make the right choice
ignore any surges of memory
or pangs about the future
put correct moments together
one after the other
that is all
3 comments:
Ignore any surges of memory
Coming from my background as a would-be historian, surely you have to learn from experience in order to know what the right choice is, no?
Or are you referring to memory as an imperfect concept that cannot tell us exactly what happened?
I´m pleased it´s lost and found and not the other way round.
Good observation and one I struggle with and question a lot concerning a true instinctual state, the NOW of Zen.
I don't think we're really capable of sustaining that sort of in-the-moment state for long, but it's still meaningful to train your mind to be able to pull in on the moment in times of crisis (physical danger, onsetting panic) and it's certainly nice to pull in those outer boundaries (speculation of the far future, endless revisiting of the past) in order to be able to experience the current moment more fully.
As to the past informing current decisions, you're right that for us to improve our decision making abilities, we can't shut off the past completely. Maybe part of the practice is to learn from past decisions in their own moments, and somehow transfer the knowledge from a complicated memory to more of an instinct, a deeper understanding of things generally, so that when new decisions are made, memory per se need not really be consulted, but the resulting decision is nonetheless a better "instinctual" one.
Like I said, it's a good question. I'm only speculating.
And by getting 'lost' in the flow of time (forgetting where you are on some kind of imaginary timeline), you 'find' yourself right where you are, right HERE, in the present. Hence the title. You picked up on this well too :)
each day i age i get a teensy bit wiser it seems, so our past is like the building blocks to our present moment and therefore our future as well. if i don't stray too far from what's happening now, but pull from past experiences (subconsciously usually), i will make better choices, i believe.
i agree in general that instead of idealizing a future, we do our best each moment, minute, hour.....be true to who you are, be tolerant of other ideas and other people. we all have our own reasons for what we do depending on where we've been and want to go.
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