Not at all, Shepaints. I like your back stroke. I also like the notion that, with respect to evolution, our collective change is within us.
Let me qualify that. Change itself is inherent to us, i.e., mutation. We will change no matter what. But the way we change, the "direction" change takes has to do with (adaptive) interactions between spontaneous mutations and external conditions (viz. natural selection). Farmerman can check me out on that.
Re: The present is eternity..
Cyracuz wrote:It is my opinion that time does not move in a linear fashion. In fact it does not move at all. The present is always. It's inescapable. But it does not alter, this present. It never turns into future, and it never becomes past. In this way the present is eternal. We, and by we I mean evolution, move through this present, constantly altering, constantly reverberating, our hopes and memories expanding. We call it time, but it is not. It is change, and it is within us.
I feel I have particular instances of time which chronologically belong to the past but are directly connected with the present, that is, those instances are eternal.
...to try and connect this thread to art...i have
just viewed an exhibition and read the words
of an abstract artist whose name now escapes me, " I always paint the same thing, its just the feelings and impressions that change".....Is this anyway connected to "the present is eternity?".....Well, it is, ..........for me.....
glug, gurgle, splish, splash!
For me, Cyracuz has pretty much summed it up, in Satt_F's quote above.
shepaints wrote:Cyracuz said "In this way the present is eternal. We, and by we I mean evolution, move through this present, constantly altering, constantly reverberating, our hopes and memories expanding. We call it time, but it is not. It is change, and it is within us.".................
Evolution is a decidedly 'static' phenomenon more like an 'extreme' snail in 'almost' motion; for a change to be induced by the evolutionary process takes eons.
"We call it time, but it is not. It is" - relationships.
shepaints wrote:........JL said, "Yet the pond is always changing, with waves and movements of the water. It is not static, there is change in the present but there is not movement from past to future, just a dynamic eternal Now>"
The kaleidesope is the same sort of image.... change in the present, every facet of the universe is constantly changing....every component of the kaleidescope is constantly changing.........
The present 'is'; and while there are 'ripples' in the flow of now, it is not so much 'change', but rather the oscillation of relationships swinging like a pendulum - back, and forth.
shepaints wrote:...to try and connect this thread to art...i have
just viewed an exhibition and read the words
of an abstract artist whose name now escapes me, " I always paint the same thing, its just the feelings and impressions that change".....Is this anyway connected to "the present is eternity?".....Well, it is, ..........for me.....
glug, gurgle, splish, splash!
this is the ultimate 'profile' of an artist tying in with my definition of "art" (i.e. 'art' is emotional communication); the artist makes choices, and masters various techniques which make their work 'recognizable'; the variations in his/her work comes from the emotional 'message', which changes with each work.
Yikes! I just read through this thread, and I have a nitpicky point about ego. 'Id' is the Freudian conception of a brain in childlike, me me me addictive behavior. 'Ego' denotes a higher level of evolution, where the soul transgresses these base desires. Super-ego is the truly elevated human being, with no need for anything base at all. Pure intellect, a bit like the Borg.
As for the subject of the thread, I firmly believe in living in 'the moment'. The past and future doesn't really matter. What matters is that you are doing something, preferably positive. It is pure hubris to think that the world will not go on without you. All we can envision about the supposed future are short-term goals. All we can envision about the past are 'should have, could have' negative conundrums. Live in the moment, and ye shall have eternity.
cavfancier wrote:............. Pure intellect, a bit like the Borg.......
only in a 'good' way!
there is a famous quote, frequently dredged up: "those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it"
i would counter with: those who ignore the 'future' are doomed to miss it!
BoGoWo wrote:cavfancier wrote:............. Pure intellect, a bit like the Borg.......
only in a 'good' way!
there is a famous quote, frequently dredged up: "those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it"
i would counter with: those who ignore the 'future' are doomed to miss it!
I might counter with the fact that even visionaries need to focus on the present in order to achieve their goals for the future. Just noticing that the future is in need of growth doesn't affect the day to day work to make it happen.
You say that the future is everything, but you can only say it NOW.
We always hear that all things, including our actions are CAUSED, i.e., determined by antecedent conditions. In effecct, we are PUSHED by the past. BoGoWo seems to be suggesting that all (or much) behavior is motivated by future anticipations, part of what we mean by motivation. In effect, our actions are PULLED by the future, by the anticipated consequences of our present actions. But all that happens NOW.
This post will already be in the past once I hit submit.
Right, Cav. I think of the unborn future and dead past as anticipating and remembering in the living present. Actually, they are not really unborn and dead; they are hypothetical.
I think that despite dreams and hopes, our only true reality is the present. It is what drives us towards what we perceive as a future. It is, in fact, all we really know for sure. I pity the weathermen...so much hope, so much defeat.
Past, future, and eternity are all just matters of semantics, really. It is only the present, but it is always changing.
The present doesn't change.
the 'future' is the result of our every "now".
the 'future' is the product of our ability to imbue our "now"s with a suitable "spin'!
Quote:We always hear that all things, including our actions are CAUSED, i.e., determined by antecedent conditions. In effecct, we are PUSHED by the past. BoGoWo seems to be suggesting that all (or much) behavior is motivated by future anticipations, part of what we mean by motivation. In effect, our actions are PULLED by the future, by the anticipated consequences of our present actions. But all that happens NOW.
Pushed by the past and pulled by the future. Never a moment of peace...
Between haunting past and taunting future
Constantly revolving
Between ghosts we fear and hopes we nurture
The present is dissolving
