Can present exist, even by braking ‘time’ into small fragments? If so - how long is the present moment? The beginning of anything is already in the past before you get to the end. Or maybe it’s a constant past and the future. When we walk as soon as we complete the step, that moment is over. It is now the past. If we are still thinking about it, we are not in the present. So what is the present? Is it the next object that arises? But if it’s so then it’s the future? What happened to the Present?
In all traditions of ‘meditation’ is to stay in the present moment. Everyone knows what the present is: now. But what, precisely, is a moment? How long does it last? And when does the present moment become the past?
In vipassana the word moment has two senses: the first is what we might call the practice-moment. (Practice refers, of course, to meditation practice.) The second is the moment of consciousness itself. The first moment contains only one object of perception - one movement, sight, sound and so forth. It cannot contain both a sight and a sound; that would be two moments. The moment of consciousness, on the other hand, refers to a moment of the mind arising and disappearing. The rate of this moment is incredibly fast, and it never changes. It is an ultimate phenomenon. One moment of consciousness is the smallest unit by which we can measure ultimate reality. A single one of these blips is thousands of times shorter than a 2-3 second practice moment. All consciousness moments are of the same length. And they're arising and disappearing all the time, whether or not we recognize them. So the aim of vipassana practice is to get mindfulness fast enough that it can perceive a single moment of consciousness arising and disappearing.
Now, is it possible for the meditator to go from observing the first kind of moment to seeing the second. As mindfulness gets sharper and faster, the student begins to bridge the gap between the practice moment and the moment of the mind. When this happens, the meditator might focus on one walking step, for example, and perceive several moments arise and pass away before the movement of the foot is finished. There might be a sense of great speed as mindfulness sees something in a split second, like a meteor streaking across the sky. The meditator may have the experience that, as soon as he focuses on anything, it bursts or disappears immediately. The moments become shorter and shorter as mindfulness is able to cut things faster and faster. When this occurs, the student is beginning to see the second kind of moment.
When mindfulness is fast enough, the student clearly experiences the moment of consciousness itself. He sees one mind-moment arising and vanishing in sharp detail. To see this is to see the actual truth of our experience, undistorted by delusion. It is to see ultimate reality. He then understands one of the three characteristics: impermanence, UN-satisfactoriness, or impersonality. This is something to be understood by experience only, not by thinking it out. It is said that One need only see three or four such moments in a row in order to reach enlightenment. Indeed, even perceiving one moment of consciousness is a great boon for the meditator, an experience. ~ by Cynthia Thatcher ~
but even this doesn't explains how long the present moment is.
Replies
talking about applied temporal mechanics. and linguistics
utilizing linguistics to alter the boundaries of time and space that hold together consciousness.
Yes I'm also interested in time.
And I'm also interested in the duscussion topic.
How long is the moment. - nothing there about time.
Although time and the moment are inextricably linked.
If you are interested in time,
why do you keep asking questions about me?
Every time you bring my intelligence and credibility into question. (and you do it all the time).
You are saying that my answers are meaningless.
You are asking me to qualify them.
Keep my credibility out of your posts,, and I won't need to bring me up
You bring up the lion roaring.
I don't care about your lion roar.
It isn't very impressive.
However,
I do care about how you think and who you are.
Why would I invest this amount of energy if i didn't?
That's how I step into your world and better understand your answers.
You want to discuss time in the moment from a practical perspective....
When you ,make a comment.......
By better understanding you and how you think and feel,
I understand more about the journey that created that comment.
So I have more time,
In the moment.
To focus on you.
And what you are saying.
It means I don't have to second guess and read into what you say.
Because I understand the language, the syntax..
The thought process that wrote it.
Because I better understand the man who wrote it.
And it frees up time,
In the moment,
To create a more accurate answer.
In the moment.
You want to logicalize the length of the moment. (which is the subject mater)
You cannot
And so we get bogged down.
In time.
Experiencing the passage of time.
Out of the moment.
Instead of experiencing the passage of no time.
Whilst in the moment.
I see the length of time in the moment as a measure of the relationship you have with yourself and your environment.
The moment is experential.
And the answers of time are easier answered from within the moment than without.
In no time.
In my humble opinion.
The point is,......
why do you think I ask you if you meditate......
To get to know you.
Looking for a common frame of reference.
to better understand your answer.
if you aren't interested in me then we aren't working as equals.
And there is no working with you.
normal programming has resumed....:)
If you're not interested to know how I think, goodbye,
there's no working with you.
no.
you stop.
I told you I don't want to talk to you anymore.
Because I hate this crap.
You keep dragging me in.
Now live with this.....
All that effort to write a masterpiece.
I read the first two words of it.
And then I replied.
A lot of wasted time.
In the moment.
You don'y get it.
The you time you spend considering the moment.
Is the time you are out of the moment.
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