We hear a lot of well meaning, personal development specialists giving advice about the importance of 'staying in the present moment' as if that was the answer to peace, happiness or/and contentment. Meditation and yoga retreats are increasing in popularity and many people are considering what spirituality means to them in life and work. Their ultimate quest is to realise the 'Power of Now'.
However I've been thinking long and hard about this stance for many years and am now finding the idea of a retreat into the 'now' as increasingly redundant and almost close to bankrupt.
We are living at a time of great upheaval and change. Our current economic models seem to no longer make sense, there is confusion as to the way forward and we in the privileged West are in conflict with most of the rest of the world in terms of our values, ideas, beliefs and experiences. So we might suspect that this is not a time to fall into a 'Power of Now' trance and hope things will get better on their own. Surely what we need now, more than anything, are new ideas for the future. New ideas about how we can genuinely integrate and co-create future communities and cultures in collaboration with the rest of world.
While it is important at times to empty our minds to focus and rest in the present moment, it is ultimately a state of stagnation from a developmental and evolutionary perspective. The world is full of creatures that can rest in the present moment without thoughts about past and future: cows, sheep, cats, jellyfish to name a few. And history is littered with stories of human beings who have allowed themselves to 'go with the flow' even if that ultimately meant the annihilation of natural environments, other living beings and sometimes even themselves.
But as far as we know we human beings are the only creatures on earth that can consciously create the future. We actually have the science and technology to create a cleaner, healthier and happier world for everyone now. There is absolutely no reason for human beings to kill each other for resources in a world where we have the ability to turn sea water into drinking water, dry desert into arable land, and deliver cancer treatment in forms that we previously only saw on Star Trek.
It's all out there if only we could find a new way to 'be' that meant everyone who had access to it wanted to deliver these technologies for the good of every living being. The only thing standing in our way is ourselves. The problem is that most people believe that someone or something else is responsible for making the future happen. Whether it be a natural or supernatural being. But who is it? Governments, politicians.....God? Maybe. But is it the future we need?
The real challenge is with us.
The human organism is full of genetically inherited, physical and emotional drives that can't adapt to the pressures of the modern world. Civilisation has brought many wonderful things together with a deep and abiding anxiety. Some of us feel it more than others but it's there. Hence the rise of the 'power of the present moment' Gurus. We need to engage with new ideas that help us to better understand who and what we are and in what context. In terms of understanding ourselves from an evolutionary perspective most of the current values, ideas and beliefs on which human societies around the globe are built are in desperate need of innovation.
While far from perfect the sciences have revealed many undeniable truths. Evolution being one of the most important. We do not live in a pre-designed, pre-determined universe, we are engaged in a random and chaotic process of creativity. However we human beings are that process becoming conscious of itself. The human mind has developed in such a way to make it possible for us to be co-creators in an eternally evolving process of becoming.
The challenge is that there is no blue print or template to follow from some alternative, perfect universe that existed in the past where everything was lovely and we all got it right- otherwise we'd all be living there. We are all pioneers in life.
Apparently, before the known universe emerged, the total energy from which the 'big bang' was generated was in a state of zero. Particles popping in and out of existence in a state of pure potential. I'm guessing that cosmic dance of energy was outside of time and space, as both hadn't been created yet. So whatever intelligence was at the source of creation, it certainly wasn't comfortable just existing in an infinite 'now' as the consequence of its impulse to become created a space time with forward momentum. In other words the arrow of time always keeps us feeling, thinking and moving in a forward direction towards the future.
In reality we have emerged out of the fabric of space time. In fact we ourselves literally make time,physically and intellectually. We are time machines. Even when we reach a point where we might think we are going backwards in terms of our progress our feelings, thoughts or actions are realised in the next moment we experience. The paradox is that it always 'feels' like we are in now-ness, but in reality there is no 'now' as we are perpetually moving into the next moment, and the next, and..... there goes another moment and.......so it goes.
Just try for a moment to conjure up a mental image of a fixed dividing line between the past, present and future and you'll get a sense of the ever moving flow of space time.
The power of being in the 'now' surely means reflecting on the past and engaging with creative ideas for the future in order to find a way to become more human in the global 21st century.
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