mental states

a little philosophy here, crude and not well sorted.

One aspect of Buddhism I like is the emphasis on the mindfulness in meditation. The sense that only in the here and now can we find what is "real." Of course, Buddhism can take this further and express doubts about our "common sense reality." But Buddhist meditation does emphasize the importance of the individual's mental state.

Our inner life is a series of mental states, really. Or a continuing everchanging mental state, without a break from birth (or sometime before?) to death. Even sleep is only another mental state.

And, only the present is "real." the past no longer exists, and the future does not exist yet. Whatever memories we have of the past exist in the present. Whatever physical relics of the past we have exist in the present. Nothing too radical here, really, except that we can use this to free ourselves of aspects of the past that are constraining us.

What happened in the past is irrelevant. What is relevant is our current mental state; of course it's a product of past mental states, but we have some level of control over the present, while we have no control over the past or future.

Maybe that's what I'm stumbling toward. We can have some control over the present, but no control over the past or future. Thus, all we can do is work on our present mental state. No point worrying over the past, you see. The past is gone.

Ah, but how much control do we exert on our current mental state? Maybe not as much as we'd like to think!