Hacker News Reader

Comment by emontero1 | Hacker News Reader

As with most things in life, too much of anything is generally a bad thing. If one constantly lives in the moment, forsaking entirely the idea of a future and its implications, then the chances of amounting to anything in life are greatly reduced, since the ability to look forward and hope for a better reality are tightly entwined with the concept of planning. How can one develop both personally and professionally without looking ahead? On the other hand, if one concentrates exclusively on the future, neglecting the minutiae of everyday life, one will, invariably, miss life altogether. I think it's just a matter of perspective. Balance is key.

View on HN

You say it's all a matter of perspective, yet you worry about "amounting to something"? You look forward and "hope" for a better reality? These are contradictory notions.

When you "hope for a better reality" you suggest that reality is something that happens to you, which in Zen terms (of which this article mostly is) isn't the case. It's more like something you "happen" to yourself. Since you are it.

That being said, if it is your desire to play the game (as it is mine at present), then yes, looking forward and planning for the future are important. Experience points must be gained to get to the next level; missions must be completed ;)

Planning for the future is an aspect of the present moment.

Kind of like children. They are our future but they exist now, in the present moment.

Can one actually "imagine the future" in the mindful way the article suggests? Or is that a contradiction in terms? One resolution:

One can imagine an abstract model of a concrete physical object (e.g. a lever; a geometry; a count of objects) and then ignore the concrete reality, and become so fully immersed in the abstraction that one loses track of time. I suggest that this is a form of mindfulness. Thinking about an abstraction is not necessarily mindful: it can be done in a non-mindful way by being constantly distracted by other concrete objects or other abstract models. Mindfulness is flow.

The "future" is a abstract model, and so the above also applies to it.

For human beings, these imagined interior worlds - be they abstractions of objects or of the future - as just as much a reality as the physical world. I suggest that we naturally and instinctively apprehend them in the same way, and both can be done in mindfulness - or not.

Mindfulness isn't really flow, as it basically means paying attention to what's going on in the current moment - a more general awareness of what's going on with your thinking, body, and surroundings.

To concentrate on an abstract object is basically the opposite of mindfulness, as you're ignoring your current experience.

Your view is precisely what I was countering. My point was that they can considered to be the same thing, by the abstract object becoming your "current experience". That it's not just playing with words, but that humans use the same circuitry to experience both (similar to how we experience tools as extensions to our bodies; and that dreams can be perceived as real).

However, I'm just restating my comment. I'm happy to agree to disagree with you. :-)

Living in the moment doesn't necessarily exclude planning for the future. But it should exclude obsessing about the future. There's only so much planning you can do in this very moment (and it's usually not much, think about how long it really takes to come up with a plan or solution for the first time). Looping over it again and again will not change anything. It'll only make you miss what's happening now.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com