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Old 06-13-2019, 07:50 AM   #31
xoxoxoBruce
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You can call the present, now, but you're severely limiting your ability to communicate accurately in English. In the three examples I gave the word now represents three different spans of the future to any normal(or slightly warped) person. I believe I understand the concept, but trying to communicate it using now is like George Washington coming in a time machine and telling everyone he's gay.
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Old 06-13-2019, 08:47 AM   #32
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How could the word now represent a span of time in the future? In all 3 examples, the now was the beginning of the task. It's just 3 different lengths of time from that point forward.

Maybe re read what I posted from the book where he talks about nothing ever happening in the future.

Now is now. The eternal present.
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Old 06-13-2019, 03:38 PM   #33
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Only considering now is like being glued to your phone. Then you get run over by a bus, or walk off a pier. It's abdicating any and all responsibility for what happens to you. Replacing "I should have seen that coming" with "Shit happens".
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Old 06-13-2019, 06:53 PM   #34
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Him living in the Now could be advantagious for us, like:

What? You say today's your birthday! If you had been thinking ahead, I would've known sooner to get you a birthday present. But it's too late NOW!
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Old 06-16-2019, 06:15 PM   #35
lumberjim
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Of course you don't live ONLY in the moment. Just that your brain is a tool. It's not WHO you are.

You don't hold a hammer in your hand all day just in case you encounter a nail. So why is your brain always yapping away? Put it the fuck down when you don't need it.

You need to visualize the future in order to plan. You need to remember the past in order to learn. But you absolutely cannot live in either place. You're alive NOW. So when you've made your plan, set it gently aside and give your full attention to the task at hand. Repeat until the plan has come to fruition.


The point is to silence the narrative of thoughts that constantly run through your mind, taking your attention away from what you are doing.

That's what I'm trying to do. That helps me.

It's not easy. You have to catch yourself all day long. Even folding laundry, or mowing the lawn... Your mind races. Notice. Pay attention to what you're doing.
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Old 06-16-2019, 11:42 PM   #36
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I always figured those mind numbing jobs like mowing the lawn were an opportunity to think about other things... like the babe in the house.
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Old 06-17-2019, 01:14 PM   #37
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They are just that. And I'm suggesting that when your attention is off (in the future) with the babe in the house, you're missing the moment you're in. Which one is real?
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Old 06-17-2019, 01:27 PM   #38
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I'm mowing the yard when there's a babe in the house?!

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Old 06-17-2019, 08:33 PM   #39
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Making music forces you into the now

I enjoy doing pit bands for musicals. For two hours, every note is planned out, and so from the first note you play, your mind is sharply focused on that. The only thought permitted is, what note do I play next, and when exactly do I play it. (After 1/32nd of a beat, or do I get to wait longer?)

Is this part of the point of meditation? To put yourself into that state, without depending on giving your brain another task to accomplish
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Old 06-18-2019, 12:20 AM   #40
xoxoxoBruce
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lumberjim View Post
They are just that. And I'm suggesting that when your attention is off (in the future) with the babe in the house, you're missing the moment you're in. Which one is real?
After 40 years of spending a half dozen hours every week mowing the lawn, I'd rather be anywhere else. Why suffer through it when I can make it more pleasurable in my head? If I'm enjoying what I'm doing, or at least getting some satisfaction from it, I have no trouble staying in the moment. I doubt you had any trouble paying attention building your bike.

Perhaps lawn mowing was not the best choice for illustration because I hate it with an irrational pasion. I can see where multi-tasking can make things more work than pleasure by having to concentrate on not putting the cookie sheet in the washer, laundry in the crib, or the baby in the oven.
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Old 06-18-2019, 06:21 AM   #41
Griff
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertoad View Post
Making music forces you into the now

I enjoy doing pit bands for musicals. For two hours, every note is planned out, and so from the first note you play, your mind is sharply focused on that. The only thought permitted is, what note do I play next, and when exactly do I play it. (After 1/32nd of a beat, or do I get to wait longer?)

Is this part of the point of meditation? To put yourself into that state, without depending on giving your brain another task to accomplish
This is insight. Thank you.
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Old 06-18-2019, 06:59 AM   #42
lumberjim
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I don't really know if I'd call it meditation, ute. What you describe sounds like you're just busy.

Meditation... As I understand it, is to practice simply quieting the mind. To not think in words for a time. It's very difficult at first.

You're not spaced out thinking about how beautiful a flower is, you're actually very alert. When no thoughts are speaking in your head, your other senses deliver a lot more information.

Seeing a flower without trying to name it, or judge it's beauty relative to other flowers (substitute any object). Trying not to see your memory of what that object is, but to be aware of it and the space it takes in the space near you. Feel it, don't interpret it. Hard to put words about not using words together.

The focus on the present moment is just an entry point to that state. Like being a cat, watching a mouse hole. And it really doesn't inhibit your ability to be engaged in your activity. But practicing doing it helps to alert you to your mind or ego taking over in daily life.

Like, when you get mad at someone, and you start imagining what you're going to say to them to make them see their error. You start holding the conversation, playing both roles, in your head. You can get pretty far from the reality of the situation that way.

But if you've practiced being present, it's easier to catch yourself enjoying that inner argument, and recognizing that it's your egoic mind flexing it's muscles, not your being. That being is made of the same things as the opponent, and you can accept that they DID say that thing that angered you and not get twisted up wishing they hadn't or imagining what they'll say next. You can see why it angered you and that you are not the anger, so coming back to your calm demeanor is much easier. You don't give the opponent a wall to smash their anger against, so the confrontation ends immediately.
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Old 06-18-2019, 09:33 AM   #43
limey
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertoad View Post
Making music forces you into the now

I enjoy doing pit bands for musicals. For two hours, every note is planned out, and so from the first note you play, your mind is sharply focused on that. The only thought permitted is, what note do I play next, and when exactly do I play it. (After 1/32nd of a beat, or do I get to wait longer?)

Is this part of the point of meditation? To put yourself into that state, without depending on giving your brain another task to accomplish
This is why going to any music practice is a restorative action for me. All other thoughts and feelings are put away for the duration of the practice.
I disagree with LJ that it is another form of busyness because UT here is having to put the immersion into the now that is a music practice (or performance) into words, just like LJ is trying to describe meditation.

Sent by magick
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Old 06-18-2019, 09:54 AM   #44
Undertoad
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It's not exactly like being busy! There is something about the timing aspect of it, and the fact that you're working with other people. Every BEAT forces you into the current time.

I'm singing now, and singing and playing bass is an amazing challenge. I feel like my brain is entirely taken up by it; and I have to reach some sort of spiritual other world, where I can access both things at once.
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Old 06-18-2019, 04:41 PM   #45
lumberjim
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Try meditating in the morning. You may find that it enhances that ability. Like exercising your being. Music is guttural. You feel it more than think it. Dancing is the same. If you think, you slip.
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