Awakening is not a journey of discovering a distant land or a coveted secret, but rather, it is a journey of surrendering to what has always been present but shrouded in illusion and disillusion.
But, as Einstein once said, “For we convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent.”5
Was this how trauma worked? she wondered. Those closest to it remained dumbfounded by the fact that those who weren't present could derive meaning from it?
Most times, my mind is just an ongoing, present-tense, first-person monologue. It's like I'm writing a novel.
Being there doesn't mean I'm present. I exist only in words. I want to be transmuted fully to white page and ink.
Witness also that when we talk about literature, we do so in the present tense. When we speak of the dead, we are not so kind.
There's no such thing as a minor lapse of awareness. You're either present with what is--right here, right now--or you're someplace else.
Creationists eagerly seek a gap in present-day knowledge or understanding. If an apparent gap is found, it is assumed that God, by default, must fill it.
The double-crossed, might-have-been history of my country is not the study of what actually took place here: it's the study of historians' studies. . . . Memories are their own descendants masquerading as the ancestors of the present.
I am a person who continually destroys the possibilities of a future because of the numbers of alternative viewpoints I can focus on the present.
Everyone’s past has ways of sneaking up on them. You just have to be in a place in the present that you’re strong enough to deal with when your past comes to visit.
Shall we never never get rid of this Past? ... It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body.
The past haunts the present in more ways than we think. It certainly scares the living daylights out of ME"~ Old Wrinkly
It's strange how memory gets twisted and pulled like taffy in its retelling, how a single event can mean something different to everyone present.
Still she wondered: did the present deliver up the future, or must you chase your destiny like a harpoonist?
...that in former ages they had been as wise as they are in this present, nay, wiser; for, said they, many in this age do think their forefathers have been fools, by which they prove themselves to be such.
People gossip. People are insecure, so they talk about other people so that they won't be talked about. They point out flaws in other people to make them feel good about themselves. I think at any age or any social class, that's present.
The present times require the vigor and the activity of the prime of life; but I feel the increasing infirmities of age to such a degree, that I am conscious I cannot serve you to advantage.
Before anything else, we need a new age of Enlightenment. Our present political systems must relinquish their claims on truth, justice and freedom and have to replace them with the search for truth, justice, freedom and reason.
I learned from an early age that my heritage, my love for people, and my desire to be a vehicle that can be used through my voice, that my expressions and actions can transport a person to experience a scene from the past, present and future.
The further we distance ourselves from the spell of the present, explored by our senses, the harder it will be to understand and protect nature's precarious balance, let alone the balance of our own human nature.
