In the Moment

Sure I've been here before but on holiday came to consider the "moment" again. I had just taken a paddle in the sea at Dungeness and while drying my feet realised that this was the first time I had entered the sea this year. The first time since I was at St Ives on holiday last year some 5 months before... and I had missed the "moment" not realising that it was of some significance.

So I thought at bit and examined the moment I was in now which was being spent thinking about the nature of moment. Realising quickly that I shouldn't waste my holiday in thoughts I can have any time I returned to being on the beach. But it became hard working out what exactly constituted the moment I was supposed to be in. The moment drying my feet? The moment standing on the beach with the wind in my face? The moment hearing the fog horns from the light houses (it was foggy)? The moment feeling the shingle under my other foot? etc etc. I left the thoughts till today...

What was clear is that none of these were "the moment" because each was a thought about the moment. As I'm slowly beginning to realise about everything: the labels we put on them are empty... a chair is not a chair precisely because it is a chair (in confusing speak) in more sensible language: what we call a chair is actually just the assembly of parts, it has no nature itself - the "chair" is nothing (its just a word) but what is really there is there, it just isn't a word! Yes we sit down, but what we sit down on must be separated from the word and thoughts we have for it. Put that another way: a real chair is just the assembly of parts. The idea of a "chair" however has no parts! You can't make the "idea" from chair legs etc. They are not the same.

Returning to the moment: the moments I have listed are thoughts about the moment. The moment I first put my feet in the sea. The moment I hear this, or see that. I am measuring the moment according to my senses.

The actual "Moment" is not measured. It has no form. It can't be thought because this moment is the condition (in Kantian language) for thought itself. The label "moment" must be separated from the real thing. This is hard and it is why I am still at some confusion on what "being in the moment" really means.