Today’s meditation is available to all subscribers. Consider becoming a paid member to support the mission and gain full access to our daily meditations (and courses) on the art of living. If you cannot afford it at the moment, feel free to request a complimentary membership or use this discount link.
📿 Notes on the Existence of Time
This week’s Saturday meditation comes from an essay by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860). In an essay titled, The Emptiness of Existence, Schopenhauer wrote,
Time is that by which, at every moment, all things become as nothing in our hands and thereby lose all their true value. What has been exists no more; and exists just as little as that which has never been. But everything that exists has been in the next moment. Hence something belonging to the present, however unimportant it may be, is superior to something important belonging to the past; this is because the former is a reality and related to the latter as something is to nothing. … Of every event in our life, it is only for a moment that we can say that it is; after that, we must say forever that it was. Every evening makes us poorer by a day. It would probably make us angry to see this short space of time slipping away if we were not secretly conscious in the furthest depths of our being that the spring of eternity belongs to us and that in it, we are always able to have a life renewed.
Schopenhauer believes that reflections of the nature of those above may, indeed, establish the belief that to enjoy the present. To make this the purpose of one's life is the greatest wisdom; since it is the present alone, that is real. Everything else is only the play of thought.
Contemplation Questions (Pick one or create your own!):
Are you typically thinking about the future, past, or present?
How might more time in the present moment change your life?
This Week’s Meditations…
—
Thank you for reading this week; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
P.S. Feel free to comment, ask questions, or make suggestions!