The Present as Awareness

We Can Never Experience Reality

When we have the realization that we are “alive,” what comes to mind? What is it one of the first things we realize when we jolt awake into the consciousness of our Being?

The first thing we become aware of is the Present moment — that we are a Being that exists in Time. We call this immediate relationship to Time “The Present.” Most people are willing to inherit popular definitions of the “Present” from such figures from Buddhism or differently, the popular social media “Meditation apps” that promise awareness of the Present moment.

But are these definitions of the present moment true? I’m not so sure. One route to take is to clarify the issue of temporality so we can see exactly what it is and how it relates to consciousness and our own Being-in-the-World.

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The Present as Awareness

It seems the Buddhist definition of “The Present” has taken over even in the West as our dominant cultural definition of what it means to be Present.

Bard will do the work of summarizing the Buddhist belief about the Present moment:

In Buddhism, the present moment is defined as the only moment that is real. The past is gone and the future is not yet here. The only thing that…