“The present moment is the only moment available to us, and it is the door to all moments.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
Introduction
Embracing the Now
The present affects all tomorrows but never all yesterdays.[1]
Our consciousness of time is always in the present. The past is memory, and the future is one’s aspirations and speculations.
One who is not mindful of the present is merely letting time fleet past. This person does not engage with the experience of the now. One does not embrace life.
One who dwells in the past is depressed. One who dwells in the future is anxious. One who dwells in the present is living, not existing.
Perhaps that is why great religious figures or sages like Jesus Christ and Lao Tzu advocate living in the present. After all, no amount of worry can take back one’s days or years.
Maybe that is also why great spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Thich Nhat Hanh championed living in the now and cultivating mindfulness of the present moment.[2]
In the chapter The Law of Completeness, I explained why having a bounded speed of light makes time possible.
Without it, everything could travel infinitely, manifesting all simultaneous possibilities. This makes concrete expression impossible.
Infinity becomes unstable, possibly collapsing into finite states. And that includes universes with finite time dimensions like ours.
This then lets us have meaningful choices in the present and embrace the now. It also enables the law of cause and effect.
This is the law of the present.
The Philosophy of Time
Of all the grand illusions, such as that of separation and Maya, time is perhaps the greatest of all.
Time does not exist.
In the philosophy of time, two concepts of time exist. Eternalism holds that the past, present, and future are equally real and coexist as a static “block universe.” In contrast, presentism maintains that only the present moment is real.[3]
I wish to make a helicopter leap of faith to a very controversial thesis:
We are one-dimensional temporal beings that experience only infinitesimal slices of an infinite reality.
This happens in human form. However, we may transition to other temporal forms in the afterlife.
And I invite you to the following thought experiment:
A Time-Bending Tetris Thought Experiment
The following line of reasoning is highly intellectual. The casual reader may skip this section and jump straight to the conclusion at the end of this section.
In a more esoteric and metaphysical vein, Tetris is a finite game with two spatial dimensions, played in a single linear time dimension.
Time flows from the past to the future, and you cannot reverse it.
One might think this is highly constraining, but perhaps it is how the cosmos arranges things so we have meaningful choices in Tetris.
Imagine this thought experiment: you can now play Tetris from a multi-temporal point of view:
| Diagram Set 21-1 |
| A being with 1 time dimension can experience only one linear path, such as from A to A1 to B1 to C2. A being with 2 time dimensions can experience all linear paths simultaneously. A being with 3 can go even further by seeing more meta-possibilities. Therefore, a being with many time dimensions cannot choose: it must experience all dimensions, and life is without challenge. |
Imagine that in a Tetris game, you can miraculously perceive two dimensions of time, like in the above diagram.
You can see the current timeline branching into future possibilities. However, you can also experience and manifest them.
Hence, in a Tetris game, you can already see and realize all possibilities, including wins and losses.
Since you have manifested all your choices, you, ironically, do not have free will. You can experience free will only through the illusion of limitation in one time dimension.
Now, let us take this thought experiment a step further. Imagine what it would be like if you could predict and choose your future:
| Diagram Set 21-2 |
| Suppose A wishes to predict his future accurately. In that case, he must assume the perspective of an omniscient seer, B (the eye), to calculate all possible paths. He must exclude himself from his reality, or the seer will interfere and disrupt the future. |
This is a contradiction. He wishes to be free, but ironically cannot, as freedom can only come from ignorance.
Omniscience from B’s panoramic perspective gives him the ability to choose each path, which “spoils” the mystery of life.
Without B’s intervention, A is free, as he can choose his original, destined path from his perspective.
B, from a detached perspective with no causal influence over A, however, realizes that A will be led to disaster. Hence, for B to choose the best outcome for A, B cannot remain detached. B must intervene.
However, with B’s intervention, the sum of A’s and B’s choices disrupts A’s original choice and B’s calculations.
This is because B intervening in A may lead to B’s original, perfect, and pristine prediction of the future being altered.
Let us now extend the thought experiment further:
| Diagram Set 21-3 |
| Therefore, to predict his movements correctly, another omniscient seer, C (another eye), must calculate the sum of A’s and B’s choices. However, this leads to the same contradiction. If A knows what B and C predict, he can choose a non-predestined path. |
However, this leads to the same contradiction.
C tells A and B what is best for them. If A knows what B and C predict, he can choose a non-predestined path that breaks the original plan if B and C had not intervened.
Confused? Imagine if you are already about to succeed in some project. However, you consult a prophet to see into your future. This person gives you advice on such matters. This intervening result may make you paranoid and lead you to choose a course of action that prevents that success.
Hence, the thought experiment continues:
| Diagram Set 21-4 |
| D then interferes. If this continues ad infinitum, it means no person can accurately predict their future. There is always free will. |
Here, imagine that you are in a Tetris game, but you wish to predict the future of whether you will win or lose.
In the above diagram sets, you are A, the player. To predict your future, you must assume the perspective of an omniscient seer, B, who sees you and the future timeline of the Tetris game.
This omniscient seer cannot involve itself in your reality, as doing so could disturb the flow of the future through intervention. This will then make its predictions inaccurate.
However, if you wish to win, the only way to do so is for the omniscient seer to intervene and help you choose the paths that lead to wins.
But when it does, it may introduce inaccuracies in the intended outcome.
Hence, you must have another omniscient seer, C, who predicts your future when B is intervening for this “prediction” to be accurate.
However, for C to do so accurately, it cannot intervene. But since it wants you to win, it must intervene to choose the options it predicts will help you win.
Yet when C intervenes, it disrupts the flow of the future, creating timelines that may deviate from its predictions and, in turn, lead you to lose.
Thus, it needs another omniscient overseer, D, to again predict your future with A, B, and C in it, but not intervene.
This continues ad infinitum.
The conclusion is that no being can ever see its own future, interfere with it, and assume that the future will unfold as planned.
Your free will is ultimately yours.[4]
As a disclaimer, this argument is not mathematically flawless. A may have been destined to win, and B need not intervene. Or C or B’s interference still leads to a win.
What Time Is
Thus, what is time?
Time is simply a veil of Maya that the One creates in many “lower” dimensions of spirit and matter. It provides a mode to experience consciousness through this limit and lets us choose.
According to esoteric traditions, absolute reality is timeless, and we experience all things simultaneously when we merge with the One. There is no past and no future — only an ever-expansive I am realized in the Now.[5]
Hence, in a game of Tetris that moves forward in a single, linear timeline, one cannot accurately predict the future.
This means the future is at least partly unknown, and we are free to choose, making our choices meaningful.
After all, what is the meaning of choice if we have already seen the outcome? Choices are only meaningful if there are dangers and unknowns.
Choices are meaningful only if we are finite beings with imperfect knowledge, experiencing a single timeline.[6]
And only in the present can we choose and enjoy the flow of experience.
In a stranger vein, the cosmos could be multi-temporal. Per quantum physics, every time we make a choice, reality could branch into a parallel universe. Each one experiences a new linear order of time.
Hence, the cosmos could be a fusion of infinite parallel timelines.[7]
All timelines could be manifested as part of the all-that-there-is’s exploration and desire to become complete.
However, what matters the most is your current timeline.
Cherish all your nows, do not fret over the past, and do not worry excessively over the future.
Tetris as an Analogy
Whenever one misdrops (places a tetromino wrongly), they can choose to begrudge the present or move on. I illustrate with the following example:
| Diagram Set 21-5 | |
| 1 | 2 |
| The starting field. | The player misdrops an L piece. It messes up the stack. The L piece blocks the hole beneath in column 4. |
| 3 | 4 |
| The player stacks the right side and begins a repair attempt. | He places an I piece in column 3, skimming off the hanging orange blocks. |
| 5 | 6 |
| The hole in column 4 is fully and cleanly exposed. | The player continues stacking to make a T-spin. |
Here, the player misdrops an L piece in step 2, which blocks the T-spin chance below.
If a player had become frustrated by this and thrown their controller away, the game would have ended there.
However, instead of clinging to the past, one can only control the present. Therefore, in steps 2 to 6, the player does something splendid.
The player rebounds from the misfortune and creates a splendid T-spin setup. He can then continue smiting his opponent with great strength.
Personal, Social, and Global Applications
The Tragedy of the Tetris Elites
I have been playing Tetris for seven years as of this writing.
I have seen high-level Tetris players worldwide rise and fall. Many become so obsessed with achievements that they fail to stay in the present and appreciate the game.
Many have become single-mindedly focused on grinding for a new personal best (PB) score in various Tetris versions, such as Puyo Puyo Tetris, Tetris Effect: Connected, and TETR.IO.
I have seen Tetris streamers rage in front of a live audience when they make mistakes while attempting a world record.
Then, many are so obsessed with keeping their position as a top player that they stress over whether a new contender would rise to take their place.
Without naming anyone, I have seen these players get into severe mental health situations, where they ended up quitting Tetris.
Their rise to the upper Tetris echelons was as fleeting as it was meteoric. And so was their fall.
These players obsess over the future.
Then, many obsess over the past. Some Tetris players deliberately curse and penalize themselves for their lack of aptitude or intelligence in improving at the game.
Many form deep-rooted rivalries with other Tetris elites or groups they cannot untangle themselves from.
Even months or years later, their involvement in these dramas would haunt them, chaining them to the past. Many people would harass them in many Discord servers because of this.
Ironically, slow and steady wins the race. The players who have played Tetris the longest are the ones who do not bother with external achievements or drama. They fixate neither on the past nor the present.
When I was a newbie, I was in several communities where most players outranked and outpaced me in almost every Tetris skill.
However, those players who once belittled me for my poor skills no longer play Tetris.
My secret? I did not care about grinding obsessively for external achievements, like a personal best, or dwelling on past dramas.
I simply enjoyed playing Tetris Effect: Connected’s journey mode or Tetris 99’s regular lobbies for the sake of it.
In life, if one single-mindedly obsesses over the what-ifs and what-shoulds, such as the near-impossible goal of aspiring to become a billionaire, one would not be living at all.
He would live like Robert Michael Fischer in the movie Inception (2010). He constantly tried to live up to his father, an energy tycoon, Maurice Fischer. He ended up living the latter’s life and not his own.
In doing so, one would only exist in the future and the past, forever chasing the former and being chained by the latter.
Only when one lives in the present can one be free.
Now is All That Matters
Because now is the only time that makes sense and the only time we have power over, the implications are obvious.
Many people in modern society have lost track of time’s linear flow.
They immerse themselves in addictive behaviors like binge-watching social media, watching YouTube or TikTok shorts, being on their phones nonstop on the train, and always wanting more stimulation from Netflix.
During or after work, they worry continuously about unfinished work they must continue tomorrow or the difficult client they must deal with next week.
However, in doing so, their minds are too focused on the past or the future. They do not experience the present.
Hence, only ten weeks can pass in ten years.
What these people may need is to merely silence all distractions, literally. They could buy a special phone locker to lock their phones on a timer.
They could benefit from setting their WhatsApp to silent mode. They could use the Freedom app to block distracting social media apps, including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Kik, Snapchat, and more.
Then, they can practice what the Italians sometimes do, in the art of doing nothing (dolce far niente). They can loiter at a café or park all day and literally embrace doing nothing.
This can include similar activities, such as walking meditation or enjoying a hike in a nature reserve or forest. It can also involve a tea ceremony or just practicing mindful eating.
I do this by going to the beach or taking walks in parks. I also do it by just flying around on a flying mount in video games like World of Warcraft or Superflight, while blanking my mind out. It helps a lot.
Then, something incredible happens. Without an excessive focus on the past and future, the mind is forced to turn to the present.[8]
The person can no longer just savor life with their five senses. One can taste not with one’s tongue, but with one’s mind. One can see not with one’s eyes, but with one’s mind. One can listen to music not with one’s ears, but with one’s mind.
The now becomes a timeless now where one attunes to the cosmos. Then, one’s inner, spiritual voice would arise loud and clear, free from the terrible clutter and distractions of daily living.[9]
It was also how I honed my creativity and intellectual and spiritual insights. By silencing my surroundings, I could perceive an intuitive, spiritual presence that gave me clear guidance.
This is how I wrote this book: I simply channeled the voice of the divine through me, without effort, and completed the entire book’s early draft in two weeks.
When one finally lives in the present, life becomes fuller and much more tolerable. Every scent now becomes bursting with more vibrancy and energy.
Life becomes whole, a testament to the sacred gift of free will, where today affects all tomorrows. One can finally live in the present, rather than merely exist or flow through time.
Hence, instead of feeling that only ten weeks have passed in ten years, a mindful person can experience ten years in ten weeks.
[1] Nemo Ramjet, All Tomorrows (2006). The novella’s closing line captures time’s irreversibility.
[2] Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (1997); Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975).
[3] For eternalism, see Hermann Minkowski, “Space and Time” (1908); J.M.E. McTaggart, “The Unreality of Time,” Mind (1908). For presentism, see A.N. Prior, Papers on Time and Tense (1968).
[4] This line of argument is quite interesting. I am no mathematician, but proof by contradiction was how Kurt Gödel came up with his incompleteness theorem. Other similar mathematicians preceding him also used a similar method. This line of reasoning touches on self-referential contradictions explored in Alan Turing’s halting problem — the proof that no algorithm can fully predict the behavior of a system it is part of.
[5] Meister Eckhart’s sermons similarly describe the eternal Now as the ground of divine reality — see Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons (1981), trans. Edmund Colledge.
[6] I do not know if this is true in other universes with different laws of time and physics.
[7] Hugh Everett III, “Relative State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics,” Reviews of Modern Physics (1957); David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality (1997).
[8] Mason et al., “Wandering Minds: The Default Network and Stimulus-Independent Thought” (2007), Science — links the Default Mode Network (DMN) with mind-wandering.
[9] See Eileen Caddy, Opening Doors Within (1968), on receiving divine guidance through the “still, small voice within.”
