Now!

There are arguments besides the ‘lack of control of ones own mind’ argument in favor of sub-ascetic practices, meditation in particular.

As far as the current science goes, humans are the only species that are capable of engaging in any form of time-travel.

I know, this is news to you, but what I mean is that we are capable of thinking in the past, in the form of memory, and in the future, in the form of fantasizing. In fact, if we look at the average human, these two modes are very nearly all we are capable of.

It is the relatively rare human that ever ‘thinks’ in the present; that is to say, doesn’t actually think but merely maintains awareness of his or her environment, without running some sort of inner dialog or narrative that either leans toward the past or the future.

This points us to a benefit of meditation. Meditation, if practiced correctly and with diligence, prevents both remembering and fantasizing (or planning, which is really the same thing but with somewhat more discipline.) That is to say, it doesn’t eliminate it, but instead brings it under our control. We remember when we choose to remember, and fantasize (or plan) when we choose to fantasize. The rest of the time, we experience our existence as it is, now, now, now!

How does meditation accomplish this? It does so by conditioning the mind to not think.

Virtually all meditations are similar in the sense that a set of thought conditions are adopted mentally, and then every time the mental conditions collapse, the practitioner leads the mind back to the prescribed conditions. This is the nutshell explanation of meditation, and, like any other exercise, the more we practice, the more control we are able to have over the facility being exercised.

So what, exactly, is the point?

As I write this, I listen to music from my young adulthood. The music in question is quite capable of taking me back to a time and place that is quite exquisite in my memory. I wouldn’t trade these memories for any material gain that can be imagined. But! Due to the dependable exquisite-ness of these memories, it would be very easy to let them have there way with me, and in so doing, waste the present wallowing in the past.

Fortunately, having practiced sub-ascetics for a long time, I can tell you without qualm that the times these memories were acquired in were not times when I was saying “Boy, am I going to enjoy memories of this!”

Now is inevitably when valuable memories will be created, and the more time one spends experiencing ‘now,’ the more memories of value one will have when the past is all that is left to us.

In that time, the sub-ascetic practitioner will find their selves fulfilled.