I think most people have heard the adage
"The past is history.
The future is a mystery.
The only time we really have is now - just this moment."
How about this one?
"Many people are so concerned with adding days to their life that they forget to add life to their days."
The other day, I was doing more than a little light reading. My usual way, really. My friends describe me as very "cerebral." This description has always made me feel a bit like an egghead. But, oh well! I read what I enjoy. It just happens to be ...stuff like... the great philosphers, mythology and religion, world literature... for good goodness sake, I am a literature teacher! I read things that really sink into my soul.
I was reading Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, by Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche, of course, believes that religion is a comforting, but limiting self-delusion. His attitude is a bit imperious for my taste. I am not a Christian, so perhaps, this is why I find his writings easier to swallow than most, with some objectivity. I do like Nietzsche for his passion and consistency, and Thus Spake Zarathustra happens to be Nietzsche's lifetime seminal work--besides being his most personal. It is easy to see why. I came to section 47, part 2 of the book, and I read about the vision and the enigma of time. In this section, I could explicate the meaning of the book, not just in terms of the theme of the entire work, but in terms of the context of Neitzsche's overall philosophy. When I arrived at the crux of the matter between Zarathustra and the dwarf, two characters who had been for some time debating the essence of truth (much as happens in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"), it read, "Look at this gateway! Dwarf!...it hath two faces. Two roads come together here: these hath no one yet gone to the end of. This long lane backwards: it continueth for an eternity. And that long lane forward--that is another eternity. They are antithetical to one another, these roads; they directly abut on one another:--and it is here, at this gateway, that they come together. The name of the gateway is inscribed above: 'This Moment.'"
Zarathustra is a man with a mission at the age of thirty to retreat into the wilderness and find the essence of truth by struggling free of the chains of illusion. I feel a bit like Zarathustra. And at this moment in this story, I come to an "aha." This is the reason that I connect with this character. The eternity behind and the eternity ahead may always have been there, but I have never seen them coming to any sort of crossroads in this moment. This is a shift in thinking for me. I do have a lot of trouble living in the moment. I am always living in the past or the future, but why?
If this is my core preoccupation, surely I should understand it. I have certainly found myself in the moment, thinking about what I did yesterday and what I need to do tomorrow. I am surely spending most of the time in my life distracted. Distracted from the moment, and not immersed in an experience. And has it not been proven that mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps people cope with problems? Goodness. I should do it. I need to tackle this problem.
Shit. I am thinking of the future again.
©2009 BLOG POST by Bella Joffre
All Rights Reserved
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