Just a Thought...(4)

“Life is present in the moment.  Illusion is a thought of life in the past or the future, both of which do not exist in reality.  The past is gone and will never return and the future is not a reality…when it becomes a reality it is the present.” – Dr. Shems Friedlander

Read the above quotation closely...and think about it.  The person who I'm quoting here is Dr. Shems Friedlander, one of the few inspiring professors I studied under as an undergraduate student at the American University in Cairo.  A true artist in every sense...

Think about it...so many around us...if not we ourselves...live in the past...we recount numerous memories (for some reason, mostly sad ones) and we willingly pour salt into our open wounds to make sure that they never heal!  We compare our present to the past, always shedding light on the latter, making sure that we ruin the present moment...which is, actually, all we truly have!  

Then there are those of us who only daydream about the future..."tomorrow I'll do this..." or "tomorrow I'll say that..." It's all about "tomorrow," but what about "today?"  Without "today"...without the "now," there will be no "tomorrow!"  

Even the Buddha himself stressed on the present, labeling it the only reality.  So why is it that so many of us seem to grant the past and the future much more importance than the present?  We hang on to bits of string from our past and drag it into our today and then grasp them too strongly while dreaming about the future...but what's the point?

The past is...just as its name implies...past!  It's gone!  So why dwell on it?  I'm not telling you to throw away your memories...as a matter of fact, I'll go so far as to tell you that you should cherish them and learn from them...whether good or bad...but don't live as if they were here today!  The same goes for the future; I'm not telling you to give up your dreams...I'm a dreamer and I definitely believe in dreaming...but I also believe in hard work, determination, appreciation and...the present!  Without the present there will be no future.

And so, with that all said...the present is what is important...it is the only thing that counts...if you don't make use of what you have today...if you don't appreciate what is here now and enjoy it...then you'll be left with yesterday's tears and tomorrow's groundless dreams.