Present Moment Awareness
To most of us, thoughts of the future and past obscure the present moment to a great degree. We consider experience gained in the past to be wisdom and knowledge acquired to be understanding. We consider the pursuit of ideals and goals to be virtue. We believe that what has "happened to us" in the past has formed and molded us into our present selves. Regret, remorse, resentments, as well as expectations, hopes, and dreams all serve to prevent us from experiencing the present moment. Reality is in the present moment and cannot be in the past, nor the future as they do not exist.
Some of us are so burdened by fears of the future and trauma of the past, that it is almost impossible to focus our attention on the present moment. We also bask in the sentimentality of memories and nostalgia and look to the future for promise and our happiness and contentment.
We see, hear, taste, and smell, touch and maneuver through the material world around us, rarely considering that these senses may be creating an illusion that is based more in the way we process sensory information than what is truly "out there." One example of this is that the world you see, the table, the wall, the computer screen in front of you
Our life and affairs revolve around the particles in our world, the space is often ignored. We do not often think of the silence that enables the tones, tempo, and harmony of music, nor the physical space that enables material objects to exist.
Reality is not what we perceive it to be. What our sensory and mental systems perceive is what they are programmed or conditioned to experience. Prior experience and expectations play a huge role in that perception. Reality is only in the present moment, while experience and knowledge are in the past, and expectation is in the future.
