{"id":46731,"date":"2022-05-13T11:00:17","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/?p=46731"},"modified":"2022-05-13T13:14:24","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T13:14:24","slug":"a-million-different-nows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/2022\/05\/13\/a-million-different-nows\/","title":{"rendered":"A million different nows."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let me tell you something about the mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intellect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or the thinking machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We believe it to be very, very smart, but it can\u2019t even fully get the most direct truth about life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s always now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s always this moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The now never changes, even though life goes on just the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the most obvious thing in the world, for every person alive, but the mind is absolutely unable to wrap its big arrogant head around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mind operates within the now, as part of it, and it\u2019s by using concepts that it creates parts, elements, and time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s still always now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mind chops up this eternal moment in countless different nows with countless different flavors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five minutes from now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someday…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s still always now, and it will never be not now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This now is beyond anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s endless, boundless, and has no characteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has no form, you can’t catch it, yet it\u2019s the only reliable, stable factor in every experience in the history of experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you might think \u2018Who cares?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that cynical remark isn\u2019t you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That would be the mind speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeping you occupied with its vast and ever-expanding collection of important and painful nows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating boredom by rejecting this now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating stress by not having enough nows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating anxiety because of a scary now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating a future now that is better, and by doing so creating a present now that feels like shit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s beyond amazing how we can be tricked into believing all these different nows, while it\u2019s so simple to notice that there\u2019s actually only one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re constantly fooled, tricked, mesmerized, and nothing even tries to hide that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s out in the open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these nows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the fucked up nows, the forgotten nows, the better nows, the improved nows, the comfortable nows, the dreadful nows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contained in the only real now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by @timmossholder, for Unsplash)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let me tell you something about the mind. Intelligence. The intellect. Or the thinking machine. We believe it to be very, very smart, but it can\u2019t even fully get the most direct truth about life: It\u2019s always now. It\u2019s always this moment. The now never changes, even though life goes on just the same. It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[97,117,100,116,113,103,112],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46731"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46731"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46738,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46731\/revisions\/46738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}