LIVING happens now
You can’t “experience” “tomorrow”, you can’t measure “tomorrow”, not today,
NOR yesterday, really,
=RIGHT NOW contains all that you EVER WANT
Meaning it contains every THOUGHT, every EMOTION — that you can EVER WANT
The best thing that ever happened to you — happened IN THE NOW
The best you ever felt — you felt in the NOW
The best thought you ever had — happened in the NOW
And everything you dream of — should it ever happen — WILL HAPPEN IN THE NOW
So what this really means is that your CAPACITY to perceive and experience that rapture — it’s ALWAYS THERE
YOU are always there
The centre of that experiencing is always there
And more prosaically: the NEUROCHEMISTRY to feel that wonderful way, it’s ALWAYS THERE
It’s the way you’re born
(obviously in extreme cases that can too be ruined, but philosophically — it’s the default, as long as you’re alive — with the opposite being death)
It is thus never granted that ANYTHING tomorrow should make you feel better than you feel today
Quite like your memory of something yesterday can strike you as so idyllic and sweet, in hindsight
ABSOLUTELY AT ALL TIMES, the most likely experience you’ll have — is the EXPERIENCE OF YOUR DEFAULT
Your future joy shall be capped by that default
Hell even your future suffering shall be capped by that default
Therefore verily 99% of your attention should go to the CURRENT MOMENT
Not in any retarded “you only live once” way, mind you
“You only live once” is still you looking OUTSIDE for something to slightly stir you on the inside
99% attention should go to your inner experience:
-how focused and attentive you are
-how careful and engaged
-how grateful and appreciative
-how open and perceptive and free
-how cheerful and loving
And what about your “PROBLEMS”?
And what about your PROBLEMS RUINING your experience today?
What about you only looking into the future with the hope of SOLVING YOUR VERY REAL PROBLEMS?
Your problems ALSO exist ONLY in the NOW
Want proof? Kill yourself
That quite terminates the problems, doesn’t it?
Or don’t kill yourself,
Just FUCK those problems,
Or maybe,
DO solve those problems,
But,
maybe don’t… worry so much about them?
What is your problem right now?
I mean RIGHT NOW
Does anything ache you? That’s quite real
Are you feeling stressed? Is someone threatening you RIGHT NOW? A wild animal? RIGHT now?
Are you feeling angry, annoyed? Well are you being ANNOYED RIGHT NOW? Or is it merely you KNOWING that something is annoying? Well there’s plenty annoying shit, so why not be annoyed forever?
Are you DISSATISFIED? Well what does it even mean? What are you going to do about it RIGHT now? Because what other purpose is there in being dissatisfied? If you think LIFE IS DISSATISFYING period — then kill yourself. What’s the point
We confuse an OBJECTIVE VISION of something IMPROVING (or deteriorating) — with our EXPERIENCE of life right now
You can simultaneously be profoundly aware of the imperfect world
INCLUDING your world being imperfect
YOUR life being imperfect,
AND,
literally NOT think about it, NOT worry about it
Merely duly note the state of affairs,
Then make a PLAN,
then REALISE IT WHEN you realise it,
And the rest of the time just motherfucking smell the roses
The REST of the time you party like it’s your last day, which it is
no other day will be like today
Indeed,
Like all the rapture and love and joy and exhilaration can only be experienced NOW,
Brought about now,
So are your problems,
Your problems can ONLY happen now,
YES, they can continue into the future, if you will. They can persist
But right now — your ONLY problem is their CURRENT manifestation,
And what happens tomorrow… that is but PREVENTION
Get it?
Even the most dissatisfying aspect of your life — really has BARELY any bearing on you
It doesn’t make the beauty of the forest, the mountains, any lesser,
It doesn’t make the experience of love any lesser,
Good whisky still is just as good,
Even if it’s something that manifests in your life EVERY DAY, to annoy you, to “ruin your day”… even then that manifestation is just a TINY FRAGMENT of all the matters fighting for your attention,
If it’s really unpleasant, truly ruining this current moment — you can DEAL with that manifestation right now,
But then, you SMELL the roses again,
And if you don’t want that experience again — it’s a matter of PREVENTION,
PREVENTION
Stop experiencing that problem BEFORE it manifested again,
Even if it WILL manifest again,
Because there’s no fucking time to be gloomy and disgruntled IN ANTICIPATION of something bad happening
Life is short and there’s no time — you have to be happy instead, for fuck sake
And of COURSE PREVENTION is crucial,
Of course SOLVE ALL YOUR PROBLEMS, those you anticipate, and then some
But you do it NOT in order to finally be happy… even if it truly should elevate your baseline happiness,
You do it because it’s the right thing to do
You do it because you want to PREVENT something that could RUIN your high spirits,
But,
AT ALL TIMES YOU REMEMBER — that HIGH SPIRITS ARE RIGHT FUCKING NOW,
RIGHT FUCKING NOW
So unless you’re giving 90% and 99% of your attention to UTMOSTLY APPRECIATING this moment — you are WASTING YOUR LIFE
And when you “improve” it — you’ll still be miserable, will you not
It will NEVER be as sweet as you envisioned it
Think about it — NOTHING EVER WAS
Look around you and think of all you so craved once, and how you take it UTTERLY for granted
This is how you’ll feel tomorrow,
Therefore,
Solution is only in bringing the UTMOST JOY to your life today,
And THEN enjoying everything else that you shall experience tomorrow,
And HOPEFULLY having prevented stupid nonsense and pointless frustration
INDEED
THIS is the nuance of “living in the moment” vs “building better future”, that no one seems able to reconcile
OF COURSE you build better future. Anything but improvement is degeneration — which takes you from this pleasant moment now to sickness and destitution to death
It’s a profound delusion to pretend that your entire life will stay as good as this moment. It won’t. It can get worse or it can get better, depending on your fortune, and predominately on DECISIONS you make,
Therefore of course you build a better future,
But NOT to finally be happy,
Only to make sure you WON’T BE UNHAPPY,
Make sure your life won’t be ruined!
Because it may be, if you pretend you’re so elevated that you don’t have to live life no more, according to rules of a normal human being
But,
HAPPINESS is what you achieve NOW,
The rest is just prevention
PS
Eventually those two come together, if you are mindful of them both
If you only obsess about tomorrow — you become utterly distracted from today, and waste it
If you only obsess about today — you eventually destroy your tomorrow, you wake up in a shitty tomorrow
But if at all times you celebrate both of those, really really carefully,
without letting either of the two dominate over the other,
ALWAYS remembering to balance the two,
They actually become one
You find yourself CREATING a wonderful reality, FOR today, AND for tomorrow,
You find yourself building wonderful things, which are here today and likely will be here tomorrow,
You find that your ability to LOVE today and fully APPRECIATE it in it’s entirety — makes working on wonderful projects of the future PROFOUNDLY SATISFYING
And you’ll find that taking utmost care of tomorrow, of the future, solving the problems of EXISTING with due diligence — is in and of itself tremendously exhilarating, fun, engaging
LIVING WELL becomes LIVING WELL
You don’t have to artificially attempt to live well, by seeking pleasure and entertainment
You LIVE, and therefore experience joy and pleasure and are entertained