Twenty-seven

Movement through time is an illusion.

Now does not permit motion. Now has no extension either into the past or into the future. Now is the dimensionless present and the motion I perceive occurs because I can never experience now in its completeness. If I could, then all motion would cease and time would stand still. It follows that I must exist close to now but never quite reaching now in its fullness. It further follows that if I cannot exist at now I must exist all around it. Around now are past and future wherein I exist both forward and backward from now. Since past and future are creations of my mind, necessary to make sense of now that changes continually, I am led to conclude that motion through time is an illusion. What I perceive as motion is remembrance of things past and anticipation of things to come.

Via Aikido, I am able to approach now in an ordered way. I can approach now without limit. I cannot, however, reach now in any real sense. I will be forever locked out of now, existing in past and future to some limitled degree. Training allows me to make the limit smaller and smaller as I learn to lose myself in the moment and consequently become less and less aware of my self.