The thread posted by Princess of Hearts - The Future is a Perfect Hoax (Alan Watts) got me thinking after listening to the video. I thought I would make a separate thread because this is kind of off the topic of Alan Watts' lecture itself and I felt like having a discussion about a certain element that video brought to my mind.
When we plan for the future, we are really planning for the present. There is only the present, as past and future exist only in the minds of higher-thinking organisms. Only beings capable of memory can understand the past, and for sufferers of amnesia and other memory-robbing ailments, the past does not exist. As well, forgotten elements of what has happened in the previous present no longer exist.
The future can only be understood by an organism capable of contemplating the reactions of current actions. In physics the future can be determined based only on the precise reaction of an action, but any event that has not yet occurred does not exist. All that exists, is the Now.
When you take an action to plan for the future, you are taking that action to plan for the present. You are helping yourself now because when the reaction to your action occurs you are in the present.
Putting extra money in your savings account in the present helps you in the present.
Telling yourself your future will be better is telling yourself you are already better. Seeing satisfactory results ten years from now should not be viewed as seeing a satisfactory future, but as a satisfactory Now. Each action you take to prepare for the reactions ahead is taking action for Now.
If you constantly look "ahead" you will constantly be overwhelmed by the process of getting ahead and lose confidence. If you look at Now, every action you take is an accomplishment and the achievement of your goals.
Agree, disagree, your thoughts? These are simply ideas that sprang up in my head while listening to the excerpt of Alan Watt's lecture, so I take no offence to disagreement.
