HAECCEITY

Meaning - The aspect of existence on which individuality depends; the hereness and nowness of reality.

Photo by Rakicevic Nenad from Pexels

What is now? I have always found it difficult to understand what exactly is present. I can understand past because it has happened. Anticipation, cognition, intuition and determined decisions gives us a fair idea about what future may look like. But what is present? How does one define it?

Present is that which is occurring or happening now. The perception of now which is happening is not known to anyone. Even as I sit down and write about it, I am confused on how to move forward and attempt to describe the concept of present. The sheer abstractness of the present is perplexing to say the least. Not surprisingly, we have a subject for past in history and a subject for future in astrology but we do not have a subject for present. How do we study something which we cannot define? We engross ourselves deeply in study of the past and in the study of the future but neglect the present. Is it due to our sheer ignorance and neglect or our gross inability to understand the complexities of the continuum?

Are we doomed spectator to a battle of two omniscient and omnipotent forces of time, the unending hunger of the magnificent past raging to devour the infinite expanse of the mighty future? In a world of duality, what is the role of this infinitesimally small and inconsequential continuum and where do we fit in this continuum?

“How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet? As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity.” - St. Augustine of Hippo

Is present just a hypothetical concept and our whole existence is in a state of blur sprinting rapidly towards the future to save ourselves from the past? Are we sacrificial pawns in this elaborate game of interstellar chess between two grandmasters? It does not matter who wins, because the end result is ultimately death.

So why does present exist? Is it just an incidental accident of the colossal game or a path to our salvation? A destination we have always been seeking and running towards yet miserably fail to understand that it has always been there with us in every passing moment, perhaps.