I made this thread because I have a friend doing factory work and it's killing his spirit. A series of bad choices and addiction to money keeps him there . I realized that I was also killing my time at a high stress job and so I quit. I got a new job at a health spa and basically get paid to work out. At the end of most days, I get baked and swim laps or chill in the sauna... couldn't really ask for more. I took a year off school this year and I'm saving up money to travel. I plan on living with family in the Philippines and then later in Italy. (I'm definitely going back to school though--I like learning new stuff ) I have also been considering manual careers lately. Becoming a forest ranger or a firefighter comes to mind. I realized that sitting in an office (even if it's for my own business) is not what I want to get out of life. So now I made a decision to live it up in the present, and of course, it feels really good right now. Kinda like drugs i guess but a little different. It's like taking a drug and knowing that you won't come down unless you fall back into that "sober" path again. This is how I see it: being concerned with the future is all good, but the moment that it controls your present reality is the time to step back and take a break. I've read some philosophy and living in the "now" is not all about meditating and striving to live without material comforts while out in the wilderness (not that anyone ever said it was, tho). It's about accepting things the way they are right now and enjoying it. If I'm not enjoying it I'll make a change, and more often then not, there's an accessible path to change. I sympathize when I see friends stuck in a hopeless rut, not sure where to go or where they want to go. But at the same time, I find it hard to see the logic behind what is keeping them back from what fulfills them. If you like something, then pursue it. Even if you fail to get what you want out of the pursuit, that's unfortunate, but who knows?... maybe you'll meet a best friend on the way. I'm reminded of the line from the Sunscreen Song: "[FONT="]Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's." So if you feel like you're moving to fast then sloooww down and smoke a blunt with me right here right now because I'm feeling really good and you should too [/FONT]
I'd +rep you but don't know how, only truth was spoken here. Either way, I know exactly where you're coming from. I have a friend who is living in an apartment with her boyfriend and another friend, problem here? Shes only 19 years old, she hasn't been to college or school or anything, and works at a department store 40 hours a week. Yet some of us aren't blessed with parents who will let us chill with them till we get on our feet y'know. It's really hard to tell someone who must work to live to pursue their dreams and be happy with where they are at the same time. But at the same time it's very hard for me to understand because, if I were in the same situation I'd be doing anything in my power to get out of it. But they just sit there and kinda accept a "sucky" life.
We sound a lot a like. I got a friend who's in a bad way...im afraid he's might not make it sometimes. When he doesn't answer his phone or online I pray that he is still alive. I feel so bad for him. But yeah, I think that way as well. But it's good to have goals...which it sounds like u have. Life is about doing what u enjoy doing...there are many different paths to get u there...
+Rep on this thread bro. This section needs more of this, it's been getting some disappointing stuff lately and hopefully this is the start of a new trend towards something positive. Thanks
I agree that the surroundings and upbringings of a person really influence how they live, but at the same time I see people all around who have overcome adversity to enjoy their lives. One of my good friends crossed the border from Mexico and he and his family were faced with the major disadvantage of functioning in an American society. He's still fine-tuning his grammar, but he didn't forget his roots and doesn't have a huge dependence on money. He actually had to work in a pizza shop for about 3 bucks an hour through highschool because he didnt have a social security number. He still somehow stayed positive and he's probably the happiest guy I know. Also, it may be true that you have to work to live in this society, but if things really suck then you might be able to move somewhere and live in a commune or as a hermit or as a forest ranger . I'm not an expert (at all) at this but I do believe there are other options.
People who can overcome the many challenges of life such as conditioning and being parentless or whatever, are seriously A LOT stronger than other people. I know most people hate mexicans or what not because they take "american's" jobs, but they usually work a hell of a lot harder and usually are a lot worse off than the average american, so really they deserve the jobs. I for one wish I did not have to work in this capitalistic society and feed corporations money, because I just have a belief that it's all pretty fucked up. I actually didn't work for a while partially because of this, but I know now I have to work or else I will be living in the slums living on welfare. No one really cares about it all though, they'll just do whatever they have to do to get by. Apathy is a damn well spread disease, for real. As for living in the present, I seriously wish I could always be like that. I try to sometimes, and that usually doesn't work. Other times I just do it when my mindset is right, I wish I were like that all the time, but I know I can't be always thinking to be living in the present, I just have to do it. It's like when I start drawing something, I usually never have anything in mind, I just start drawing and drawing until it turns out to be something, but of course not always. I dislike worrying about the future, it usually puts me down. I'd rather be happy just living like I am, always.
I like to be a pretty down to earth person.. But most of the time I HAVE to stay in the future.. I look past the stars and I pretty much plan my whole life in a day. I love to plan ahead but, when I set a goal, I do everything I can in the present to make my way to that goal a little bit earlier and give myself more time in my life.
I really like this thread It outlines something Ive been thinking about alot lately.Im 18 and a senior in HS and for the past 2 years I was SURE that I wanted to get a business degree and open my own resteraunt, or something along those lines but lately after just sitting and thinking (something I do an AWFUL lot these days), I started to wonder if that's what I want because I want to make money and if so is that what I really want in life? The answer keeps coming back as yeah, I wouldnt mind money, but NO. I want to be happy, I want to do something I can be creative with, something where I am always learning, about myself and things that interest me. This seems to me like it would make me much happier than money....Psychology really draws me in and am reconsidering what I want to get my degree in...I don't know if I have the mental capacity to become and study as a psychologist but then again, I consider myself one the smartest people I know.(Doesnt everyone??) I guess I have plenty of time to decide. I shortened that thought to a mere paragraph even though I could easily write 10 pages on how I feel about it, and things I want to get out of life, and what it would bring. But really, I wouldnt mind feedback from any of the interesting and brilliant minds on GC...any thoughts?
^ You can always teach psychology in a highschool or college if you don't become a psychologist. Actually, it would probably be more fun dealing with young fresh-minded college kids than with depressed teens or people suffering from a nervous breakdown. My dad use to work next to the insane ward in a hospital and he would always come home and talk about how the lunatics really drain all the life from the atmosphere. I wouldn't want to work in an enviornment like that for more than a week (not that all psychologists do, though). Talk to your high school counselor and ask for advice because they most likely have some type of psychological backround. There are all kinds of subjects that deal with the mind... nueroscience, ancient/oriental/etc. philosophy. I think philosophy would be a fun thing to teach but I'm bogged down by the fact that I would probably have to follow a syllabus of material and shove the universitiy's view of life down students throats... it kind of goes against the whole purpose to philosophy, which in my opinon is to "Think for yourself." Although it is beneficial to have an understanding of what other people and cultures thought, i guess.
Let this be your inspiration to make a change in youself and then society... maybe you can somehow milk the system and then with its money turn around and form a foundation that reforms the system. "A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step," and it seems like you already took a stance with your belief but you haven't yet followed through. I would also like to live in this present moment all the time, but I frequently trail off and fall into the trap of "It will be better in the future." Thats bullshit because we never know for sure what the future will be like, much less whether or not we will live to see it. The only way to ensure a "good future" is to live it up right now and commit to it. If I'm fulfilled now than it does not matter what the past or future is like because right now is all there is. I'm reiterating this from a book whose title i can't remember: "A year ago is in essence the same moment as what you are experiencing in the present; they are all moments of the present so there technically is no future or past." It's beginning to make more and more sense to me as I let it take a greater hold of me. Worrying is also something that I'm trying to give up because it is so useless. Some say that it is futile to give up worrying in life because it is an inevitable human emotion. Says who? They believe it because they were passed down this feeling from their family and society and have succumbed to the influence. There is a difference between deeply caring for something and worrying about it. I can care dearly about my parents, and be happy at this moment because the two synchronize. Worrying, on the other hand, usually means that one is not focused on the present... they are fretting over what might happen in the future. I think that it is much more useful and fulfilling to truely care about my future rather than worry about it. I dunno, I'm confusing myself now, but I think living in the present is not just about being emotionally happy. Emotions come like waves and pass like waves and so it doesnt really matter what state you're in, just as long as you realize that you are in that state in the present. And once you can realize this, you'll see there is nothing to be angry about because anger is based on past occurences... there is no reason to remain in that negative state because each moment is a new clean slate. I think this might be why some buddists are in a constant state of happiness along with thier usual "present fulfillment." Writing it all out kind of puts me in that "present-loving" mood too .
terribly sorry for my rude interjection here, i havnt read all this, but wanted to get across this in responce to the title of this thread before i read it... living in the now or the present.... how expansive is one's "now"? and how streatchy is that expanse? is it being lived in as much on the narrower more intense present as the grander more eternal now? time
4ction, I know exactly what you mean. I was planning on doing that in a way, that is why I'm getting into art/music/writing. In my opinion they are the "hope" people need to get through change and/or to see it. I wanted to be able to become a great artist and sell my stuff to rich people (tending to be people who milk their money off poor, less well off people) and in turn create art that ridicules them symbolically. A year ago is in essence the same moment as what you are experiencing in the present; they are all moments of the present so there technically is no future or past." That sounds like something I read in my Watts book Way of Zen, where it says something along the lines of that the past and future and just planes of conception that are created within our minds to connect to the present. It wasn't worded that way, but it comes down to it all just being an infinite now. I can't even remember how I was feeling 10 seconds ago, it's just a recollection of what I thought i felt. And the future is always happening now, but it happens in present so the concept of it is just something to look foward to. I don't know if that made sense, but yea you should get the point. Like the quote from Gandhi: "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." wee
It's not rude lol. I would define the now as being eternal. It's like when you continually divide a number into an infinately more presise measurement (1.0, 1.01, 1.001, 1.0001) There is no exact moment which is the present so the intangible or fleeting presence that seems to elude us is the "now"... perhaps? I'll get back to this because I'm getting confused, but I think that all this defining (and in a sense confining) does not get us closer to the point of living in the present. For now I'm sticking with present=now. I guess for me the most important thing to remember is that fulfillment does not exist in the future... it is merely a habit that most of us repeat that makes us look for our happiness "later" down the line. Part of having a succesful life is having a full "in box" (goals that haven't been completed) There will never be a day when you are laying in a hammock in a private island sipping on a corona in perfect health with all your dreams and desires checked off. Ill get back to this but lemme quote a smart fellow from another forum: "The changeable vs. unchangeable paradox is the basis of my whole proof. Your error lies in failing to understand what it means to be eternal. Not only is the eternal being without a beginning or an end in time, his [God's] existence is larger than, and encompasses, the entirety of the space/time continuum. The eternal being possesses the complete fullness of his life in a single moment of infinite duration. The past, the present, and the future are laid out before God like cards on a table. He sees all moments of time from his eternal now, and when he acts, he acts in the eternal now, yet the effects of his action are felt at different moments in time. The eternal now is simultaneous with every moment in time. Imagine a bicycle wheel. Eternity is the hub and time is the rim. Every moment in time is simultaneous with eternity, in the same way that every position on the rim is connected to the hub by a spoke. While all of time is simultaneous with eternity, all moments in time remain separated from one another in the temporal realm, just as 45 degrees is distinct from 90 degrees on the wheel. When God acts from eternity, his effects are felt in time in a chronological order, yet from the eternal perspective God remains unchanged. Thus, God can perceive something happening in time, react to it, and yet remain unchanged, for he perceives and reacts to the temporal event from the eternal now." -from the shroomery by shroomydan