It seems to be clearer in the East.

Perhaps the old Buddhist mantra about living in the present as a form of liberation might as well have been created as a byproduct of pure necessity.

When we live in dire straights, expectations and planning for the future is nothing but a luxury that only those with life stability and some kind of security can afford. So I feel that it kind of goes both ways, as in creating a virtue out of necessity. Kind of like camouflaging your weaknesses into strengths. It’s clever. Or maybe just inevitably necessary.

The way I see it, this has a considerable impact of pretty mundane aspects like working, creating a family, or even the standard baseline of friendships. All these basics of the human condition are weighed with a very different scale when the certainty of existence might cease to be at any given moment without any prior heads up.

I can’t help but wonder: is the mere act of thinking a tangible modifier of the representation of the Now? Or is it only when we actually make a decision to act on something that the force of this thinking reverberates and such influencing takes place?

I honestly wouldn’t know, but I have the feeling that it’s just by making up your mind and committing yourself to something, that this becomes the actual trigger of a chain of events that precipitate everything there’s to come, even before acting up on it, just by pure will power. I envision this behaving like some sort of domino effect, or a chain reaction that ripples relentlessly and reaches shores of unimaginable far away distance.

Is the power of our thoughts that mighty? I honestly wouldn’t know, yet I can’t help but to feel in awe by the sheer size of such a powerful presumption. What if the way we imagine and craft our thoughts is just how we generate and nurture the representation of reality around us? I guess that’s why there’s such a powerful conviction around the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies, that keeps them coming back.

…

It’s somewhat strange, though, that no matter how far remote a place I end up in, I keep realizing a certain sense of familiarity and feeling of comfort, of being in my natural element.

Perhaps this is what it means to live in the now? To not worry about plans, or timeframes, or expectations or circumstances?

Perhaps what the old Buddhist mantra really tries to convey is that life is beautiful and precious and valuable and humble and raw as it is in itself, and that realising this and not worrying about the rest is the actual path to a fulfilled and wonderful existence?

I can’t really say what living in the now means, but I can tell you this: It feels just right.