Meanwhile, 70,000 years ago

Tens of thousands of years ago, our ancestors wandered the African plains as hunter/gatherers. That's our genetic heritage. We didn't have cities, or agriculture (the two go hand in hand), we just moved from place to place, following our food sources and trying to avoid being eaten.

Something interesting happened. Unlike other pack animals, humans (such as they were) developed the ability to envision what-if scenarios. You sometimes see the origins of this in trained animals - the conditioned response to recognized stimuli. The Pavlov's Dog effect. But our ancestors took this to a whole new level. Instead of conditioning themselves to things that had actually happened, they developed the unique ability to construct a mental model of an event that might happen. This gave humans a tactical advantage, as they were able to formulate a story - a hypothesis if you wish - and then take actions based on that story.

This level of sophisticated mental modelling is what we today label as...thoughts.

 It's hard, because we tend to identify with our thoughts. But if you understand that all the stories that pass through your mind are just elaborations of the fundamental what-if analysis that humans developed, you realize that they are, rather, add-ons. Like add-ons to a software program. Underneath it all lies a core of awareness that is not the same as these thoughts - but that's a koan for another day.

Anyway, civilization is this facility gone wild. Today, we live in a world where these thought-models are often treated as more significant than what actually goes on in the world around us. We "live in our thoughts". And most of our entertainment - TV, books, movies - is all about leveraging this model-making for enjoyment rather than survival. Our thoughts have become more "real" to us than the World. And then we use these thoughts to coerce the real world into conformance. Sometimes this is useful. Sometimes this is destructive.

Just be aware. Try to remember that those thoughts you have are just hyperactive what-if scenarios running through your brain.

 Stop.
 Look.
 Listen to the World.

Sensus Ergo Est

My Dear Child,

You seem to be under the impression that everyone lives in the same world. That might seem obvious, but it may not be true.
Everyone builds their own little world in their head. Their world is defined by their thoughts about the world, not by the world itself. And since everyone's thoughts are different, everyone lives in a different world. When you see how people behave, it is because, in the world they live in, this behavior makes some sort of sense. At least, most of the time.
But it may not make sense from the perspective of your world. Because none of us are immune. Our worlds are no more independent of our thoughts than anyone else's.

I blame Descartes. Cogito Ergo Sum, huh? I Think, Therefore I Am. Well, I guess that's a truth as far as it goes. But the I that IS is not your core being. The I that Thinks is, by definition, the I that is constructed from thoughts. And thoughts are transient, flimsy, unreliable things that can change in a heartbeat.Who notices that? Not I.

How about Sensus Ergo Est? Roughly, Awareness, Therefore Being.

Try not to think about it...

MacKay

NOW, because...

You can think about the Future, but that's all you can do with it - mainly because the only thing real about the Future is your thoughts of it.
And you can think about the Past - we call that Memories - but that's all you can do with it as well.

But you can't think about NOW. You can thnk about it before it happens, or after, but that non-point-in-time we call NOW? All you can do with it is DO something.

NOW is the domain of action.

now

where all those thoughts about whatever might be 

meet the memories we think of as the past.

Litany Against Fear

Let's start with a winner...

Litany Against Fear

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing....only I will remain

Frank Herbert, DUNE