Prajna: 12 Universal Wrong Conceptions: 5. Present and Now
- Mar 25, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 18
«Of course I’ll hurt you. Of course you’ll hurt me. Of course we will hurt each other. But this is the very condition of existence. To become spring, means accepting the risk of winter. To become presence, means accepting the risk of absence.» ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "Manon, Ballerina".
Taxonomy of Existence
5. Present and Now
There is no direct physical or material evidence that can conclusively affirm or deny the existence of time, or even the existence of phenomena in time. For time to be measurable, two absolute and completed reference points must exist: a beginning and an end—markers that register the occurrence of change.
Time has no corporeal, material, or even immaterial existence of its own. However, the concept of psychological time reveals its practical utility as a measurement framework. Through it, we can refer to durations such as: elapsed time, time between consecutive events, waiting time, lifespan (time of existence or remaining survival), development time, duration of a process, and so forth.
We also perceive the existence and recurrence—whether regular or irregular—of cycles of events. These cycles give rise to our sense of time, which is not based on the cycles themselves, but on the perception of their recurrence. In this way, time is a conventional truth, not an absolute one.
Nevertheless, it is always possible to identify the Present, the present moment, and the Now. As long as energy operates through internal and external movements in the universe, and there is consciousness observing it, the Present can be pointed to and recognized. It is the location, the state, and the reality where consciousness and the identified sensory object converge—the point of encounter between the observer and what is perceived.
Alignment and Conflict with Ultimate Reality
The psychological present or subjective reality does not always coincide with the true Present of Ultimate Reality. While the Present exists eternally as the ever-renewed face of Being, the psychological present often drifts within mental projections, memories, and anticipations. It lives not in actuality but in representation.
This subtle displacement — the confusion between what is and what is imagined to be — lies at the root of most human suffering. When attention detaches from the true Present, consciousness becomes divided: part of it remains in what has passed, another part in what has not yet come. The result is a fragmentation of presence. In this divided state, perception loses direct contact with Reality and becomes entangled in the abstractions of non-existence, and so of time.
The more the mind lives in remembrance (memories) or expectation (imagination, day-dreaming), the more it distances itself from the Now — the timeless actuality in which life unfolds. This conflict between subjective time and Ultimate Reality generates unease, fear, and dissatisfaction, and all sorts of mental pathologies, because the mind tries to live outside the only place where existence truly happens.
Aligning with Ultimate Reality is not to reject memory or anticipation, but to see them as movements within the Present mind— they're ripples upon the stillness of the Now. In this understanding, the present moment is not a fleeting instant between past and future but the eternal ground from which both arise.
When the psychological present becomes transparent to the Now, perception regains its original unity. Time is seen as a function of movement, not as an independent entity; thought becomes a servant of awareness, not its substitute. This alignment restores harmony: action becomes intelligent, emotion becomes clear, and life returns to its natural rhythm in truth.
The Present is an elusive moment, continuously slipping into the past and yet becoming the future. Since transformation is unceasing, the present is an infinite threshold—an ungraspable, ever-moving frontier.
The present moment is the immediate recognition of movement, occurrence, or object.
The Now is the full image of the present moment within Ultimate Reality. If it is perceived and recognized, it can be represented as an interval with two estimated boundaries: [Beginning, End] or [0, 1].
“The Present and Reality are synchronized through the Now, which exists throughout all of Space.”
... at the seashore, seeing the Present ocean and the chance of now...
Tell about your sense
I align completely with the text
I don't know, i'm not sure of several aspects in the text
I desaggree completely with the text
Thank you for seeking knowledge, wisdom and spiritual growth.
Comments