"Live in the present. The past is over & done with. Forget it & move on with your life."

This sounds like good advice. The past is, indeed over & done with & living occurs only in the present, not in the past or in the future.

Most of us would like to dump our memories of a lot of bad experiences. We'd like to be born again, to be free of tangles from the past. We'd like, in accordance w/the advice, to live in the present.

However, we have to ask, is it possible to forget the past? What does it mean to "live in the present"?

"The present" isn't something specific. Thought of as the separation between the past & the future, it's not even an instant.

It's just a moving front, without duration, without content. For it to contain content, it has to include the past. Time is continuous, the past being inevitably connected with the future across the moving front of the present.

Time doesn't proceed in snapshots, one after another, as if it consisted of packets set end to end, but, rather, it's continuous. If you look at a sweep second hand, you'll see the effect of time's continuously moving front.

The passage of time is continuous throughout the universe. What, then, is the present?

There are two kinds of "the present" - one that we can call the meaningless kind & the other that we can call the meaningful kind.

As was explained above, the meaningless kind is the moving edge separating the future from the past. It has no duration & so doesn't last long enough to hold anything meaningful, such as a word or a sentence.

The meaningful kind lasts long enough to contain meaning. The mind gives duration to the ongoing present to make room for meaningful wholes. Before an action is taken, the mind knows what is to occur.

For example, any whole sentence is in the mind before it's spoken & any whole motion is conceived of before a muscle is used. This faculty is throughout life. The bee knows that it'll go on a hunt for nectar before it leaves the hive.

Each beat of its wings disappears into the past, but the bee flies on, in accordance with its intentions. Human beings hold the beginning of a word or sentence long enough in time to join it to the end of the word or sentence. The whole word or the whole sentence is in the present.

Thus, parts of the past are kept active in the present in order to make the present meaningful. The mind allows the present to include more than a meaningless edge or instant.

Similarly, the future is active in the present. Intending ties the future to the present. We move with time into the future, intending continuously - I intend to write this next word, I intend to complete this sentence, I intend to get up later from this chair, I intend at that time to push myself up from the chair, . . . I intend (later) to go shopping, etc.

Every moment is filled with intentions. Intention is a characteristic of the continuity of life. It exists throughout life. The bee intends to look for nectar. The tree intends to raise sap from its roots.

These intentions are more than just a matter of physics. They're a characteristic of life.

The present in this sense varies. Its meaning depends on what use it's being put to. Maybe it's something that you're absorbed in - handwork, operating on a patient, reading a book, engaging in an argument, contemplating, meditating or some other project.

The present is something known by the mind, be it a bee on its way to look for nectar or a human being engaged in something. It's known only by the mind & not by non-living nature.

In everyday life, many meaningful wholes are quickly lost into the past.

For example, brushing teeth, getting dressed & preparing & eating breakfast are quickly consigned to the past, as are stock market reports & the scores of sports teams. However, at the same time that I'm preparing breakfast or listening to a stock market report, I might be recalling unfinished projects or unresolved happenings in my past.

The present, then, is a mix of things, some soon dismissed & others lingering.

The fact that the present, seen as more than only a moving edge, has duration makes it possible for the person to correct some bad situations.

For example, if I make a mistake while typing, I can correct it. If I hurt someone, I can apologize. If I fail, I can learn from my failings. If I am insulted, I can respond. Occurrences, then, aren't totally unchangeable. Some can be adjusted in our favor.

Since this is true, we human beings hold in the meaningful present much of the past that we wish that we could undo. Since I can operate in the present, making decisions moment by moment, I think, mistakenly, that I can fix up all past trauma, humiliations, failures & rejections.

I relive again & again many terrible happenings, keeping them as part of the present. I'm under the illusion that I can remake the past, just as I can make the present, when, in fact, the past is irreversible.

We're poor at recognizing when it's time to let the past die. Student piano players, i.e., who make a mistake while playing, often stop the music, go back to correct the mistake & then proceed.

In reality, they haven't corrected the mistake.

Rather, they have played the notes correctly after having played them incorrectly & in the process they have departed from the beat, & the music sounds worse than if they had allowed the mistake to stand.

Many of us are poor at something else: we live our lives trying to push the present, to cram more & more into present time. We are always rushing, eating fast, hurrying our steps, talking fast, etc. It's the opposite of trying to put the brakes on time - remembering the past, resurrecting regrets, or worrying about what we did. Could it be that it's possible to keep pace with time, not trying to cram more & more into it & not trying to keep the past alive?

Maybe we can take time to savor the moment. We can sit at the table before eating. We can observe a friend before speaking.

When people say, "Live in the present. Forget the past," they're most likely referring to the present moment, but even this term is imprecise, since the present is continuous & therefore has no bounds.

We all live together meaningfully in the present. It's apparent that it's more than just the moving edge that separates the future from the past. Just what it is is one of the mysteries of existence.

It doesn't pay to think too much about the meaning of the present, since its duration is imprecise & also it's continuously changing. However, the idea of paying attention to our present lives is important.

The Buddhists call it "mindfulness" - experiencing life as it comes. It's the experience of being current. It's a mood of trusting our inner nature to deal with present circumstances, not pushing & not forcing ourselves, not craving & not clinging but, rather, just being.

We are creative beings - every word that's spoken & every movement through space is created anew, welling up from our inner nature.

We can give our inner nature respect.