TRIBEX

The Realization In Being EXperience

Another word to describe consciousness is the word experience. The subjective qualitative experience that you're having right now is the state of consciousness and its contents. You are just consciousness; you are just experience.

The default view which most people have is that of a dualistic subject / object perception where they believe that they are a subject experiencing the world (i.e. objects). This belief of a subject is the same as saying that there is an "I", a "Me" or a "Self" who is having experiences where these experiences are happening to them as individuals who are separate from the universe. This, however, is an illusion. It's an illusion because you are not separate from the universe but rather a part of it. This illusion is commonly referred to as the Illusion of the Self.

A simple definition of the Self is the belief that there is a thinker of thoughts where in actuality, there is no thinker; the belief that there is a doer of actions where in actuality, there is no doer; the belief that there is an experiencer in addition to the experience where in actuality, there is just experience. Once you've come to the realization that there is no Self where it's just an illusion and everything that is happening is just happening by itself, your understanding of yourself and overall human behavior can become more compassionate and forgiving.

There is no You or Self who is moving through time. Time exists and everything changes in time but how can there be a static unchanging something called You or the Self who is moving through time? Instead, what exists from moment to moment in time is only experience or consciousness and its contents.

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Subjectively, your existence is only this moment called 'now' or the present moment. What defines 'now' is the conscious experience being had and since conscious experience is all that matters, that makes 'now', the moment in time which is all that matters to you subjectively. It's always now.

When you think of something you did in the past, that is just a memory, a mental construct entering into consciousness now. When you think of the future, that is just imagination, another mental construct entering into consciousness now. And that's what the whole mindfulness thing is about, to be aware 'now' in the present moment where there is nothing wrong with having thoughts of the past and future as long as you're aware that you're having them. When you're not aware that you're having them, this is being lost in thought which is the same as being trapped in a mind-made narrative of the past and future. Below are a few short quotes from some individuals who you may recognize where they're all essentially saying the same thing about 'now'.

Eckhart Tolle: "The future never comes. Life is always now."
Alan Watts: "Time is always now."
Sam Harris: "It is always now."

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