Alan Watts again delivers a concise and comforting argument of turning your attention to the present moment. He explains the ladder in which western society is built upon and it’s never ending escalation to dissatisfaction. Although planning and prediction is a great human attribute we must return to the present moment as much as possible to enjoy the fruits of our actions, otherwise we never will. We have to stop living in the future and live fully now.
“There always seems to be a ladder before you, something for which you are reaching all the time. Then, suddenly when are about forty or forty-five years old in the middle of your life you wake up one day and say… Huh? I’ve arrived, and I feel pretty much the same as I’ve always felt, in fact, I’m not so sure that I don’t feel a little bit cheated. Because you see… you were fooled, you were always living for somewhere where you aren’t. And while as I said it is of tremendous use for us to be able look ahead in this way and to plan. There is no use planning for a future which when you get to it and it becomes a present, you won’t be there… you’ll be living in some other future which hasn’t yet arrived. And so in this way one is never able actually to inherit and enjoy the fruits of ones actions. You can’t live at all… unless you can live fully, now.”
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