The main premise seems to be that most humans are too caught up in worring about the past and the future. On the future side of things we seem to create this mental projection of different "what if" scenarios thas create fear inside us. We spend too much time dwelling and living in the past that we can do nothing about. According to the author the past and future do not exist, and the only thing that matters is this moment right now. To realize the present and discover Being is the ultimate achievement of true happiness and freedom from all forms of pain and suffering.
The author spends a few moments discussing what he calls psychological time in a section called "The Insanity of Psychological Time" that I thought would be appropriate for this blog.
You will not have any doubt that psychological time is a mental disease if you look at its collective manifestations. They occur, for example, in idealogies such a communism, national socialism, or any nationalism, or rigid religious belief systems, which operate under the implicit belief system that the highest good lies in the future, and that therefore the end justifies the means. The end is an idea, a point in the mind-projected future, when salvation in whatever form - happiness, fulfilment, equality, liberation, and so on - will be attained. Not infrequently, the means of getting there are the enslavement, torture, and murder of people in the present.
For example, it is estimated that as many as fifty million people were murdered to further the cause of communism, to bring about a "better world" in Russia, China, and other countries. This is a chilling example of how belief in a future heaven creates a present hell. Can there be any doubt that psychological time is a serious and dangerous mental illness.
When I bought this book I was not at all looking for material of political nature, but it appears to have found me. Funny how that works.
1 comment:
It is hard to stay in the present and experience a kind of spiritual flow. Everything around us is pulling us in to the future or past and robbing us of the moment.
Calvinism was a big discovery for me. I realized that salvation was now, that the kingdom of God is right now all around us though we may not see it, and that following Jesus is about living right this moment and not for some pie in the sky bye and bye when we die.
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