The true nature of the present revealed itself: it was what exists, and all that was not present did not exist... — Jorge Luis Borges

The true nature of the present revealed itself: it was what exists, and all that was not present did not exist.

Author: Jorge Luis Borges

Insight: There's something both obvious and unsettling about this idea. Right now, as you read this, everything else—the conversation you had yesterday, the plan you're nervous about next week, the person you wish would text you back—technically doesn't exist. Only this moment is real. Most people find that thought either comforting or terrifying, sometimes both. The tricky part is that our minds are built to live everywhere except the present. We're constantly replaying the past, rehearsing the future, constructing stories about what might happen. We call this being human. But Borges is pointing at something worth noticing: all that mental time-traveling doesn't change the actual fact that only now is available to you. The anxiety about tomorrow and the regret about yesterday are happening right now, in this moment, even though their subjects don't exist yet or anymore. This doesn't mean you should become some zen master ignoring consequences. It just means there's a difference between thinking about the future productively and being trapped in it. The only place you actually have any agency, any real experience, any actual life—is where you are right now. Everything else is memory and imagination, both valuable but ultimately less real than this breath.

Source: A New Refutation of Time, 1947