Eckhart Tolle and others believe that time is an illusion and that we should learn to live in the Eternal Now.
In my view, time is essential to our human perspective and life. We experience change and the passage of time as we live. We selectively remember our past experiences. We anticipate what might happen in our future.
Our skill, knowledge and wisdom are fruits of our past. We often distill them in stories, pictures, dances, and songs.
We dream, anticipate, plan, prepare for, and act to realize our future. There is much wisdom in doing so.
More than an element of practicality informs our remembering and anticipating. We also have very rich emotions associated with both our memories and anticipations.
Some of our emotions are pleasurable. Others are painful. Still others are mixed.
Why might someone devalue time to the level of illusion?
Why might someone say that we should let go of both our memories of the past and our anticipations of our future?
Why posit the existence of a divine-like Eternal Now?
Could living in an imagined Eternal Now be a type of mental and emotional anesthesia for the hypersensitive? Could the Eternal Now be an escape from memories that depress and anticipations that make anxious?
Prior to his so-called enlightenment Tolle was by his own account a miserable, depressed, and anxious man. The divine-like Eternal Now gave him relief from what he could not otherwise cope with.
However, what helps the sickly and miserable can be harmful for those who are healthy. Healthy spirits have no need to anesthetize themselves from depressing memories or anxiety-provoking anticipations.
They learn from their past and rise to meet whatever challenges they might face in the future. They're emotionally, mentally, and physically resilient.
They are of such character that they fully feel their emotions without being debilitated by them. They both feel and live fully in the present with their memories and anticipations. Living in an imagined Eternal Now is irrelevant to them. They need no anesthesia.
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