Imagine a book where every page represents the state of the universe at a different point in time. The first page is the beginning of time. The last page is the end of time. You thumb through the book and notice the continual changes from page to page. The formation of stars, planets, life. These pages are a record of all history. As you thumb through the book, you discover the remainder of the book is completely blank. This is the future. Nothing is printed because it hasn't happened yet.
You turn to the last page with printing on it. This is the present. On this page is everything happening in the entire universe at this very moment. The spiraling of galaxies. The motion of the planets. The moon, satellites, international space station and space junk all orbiting the earth. Meteors are striking the atmosphere and burning up into dust. Airplanes are flying through the sky. Clouds floating and changing shape. Rain falls somewhere and it is snowing elsewhere. Birds are flying and singing. The wind blows. People going about their business: driving, eating, sleeping, crying, laughing, arguing. Billions of people. Animals roaming the earth, climbing trees, digging holes. Trees and plants sway in the wind and reach for the sun. Fruit ripens. Fish are swimming in the water. Boats ride on the oceans, rivers and lakes.
Your awareness of the present is like a small period on the page of the present. A little dot. There is infinitely more that you don't know about the present than what you do know. You could spend every minute of the day reading the news and social media and your knowing is still a dot.
You turn to the previous page and there is your little dot at an earlier time. Maybe seconds ago. Maybe minutes, hours or days. There is a trajectory of dots all the way back to your birth. You realize that there is nothing you can do to change your past trajectory. It is permanently recorded in the book of everything.
When you meet someone in the present, it is a rare moment when your trajectories intersect. Even if it is someone you see everyday, their trajectory is more unique than their DNA or fingerprint. Their path is so different than yours that your only choice is to be curious, interested, non-judging.
You turn to the page after the present and it is completely blank. It's the future. It hasn't happened yet. You have no knowledge of what it brings. No amount of thinking can make your dot appear on that page, let along anything else. The printing will only appear when the page becomes the present.
You realize that the only thing that you have any influence over is your tiny dot on the present page. What you think. What you say. How you act. How you breath. That's what you control. But only in the present. And only in the present that you are currently experiencing. You let go of the past. You forget about the future. You focus on the now. You feel your heart open up to the present. Everything becomes more alive. Colors are more vibrant. Sounds are clearer. Food tastes better. People are more fascinating. Your feelings are more clear.
You realize that the goal isn't to change the world; it's to experience the world.
You realize that the goal isn't to feel good; instead it's to be good at feeling.
