World 5.0 has at its core a context for change based on two ideas related to time, the one a foundation for the other (if we must be linear). And then we muck it all up with the "G" word.
First - About Time: We've heard it from physicists and mystics, theologians and thinkers throughout our history. Most recently, Eckhart Tolle has written extensively on the topic. Simply put, there is no time but Now. The past and the future are constructs that frame previous and future Nows, but they don't exist.
Consider, many of us spend all our waking hours caught up in past issues or future concerns. Situations where we were hurt. Situations where we may be hurt. Indeed, it is fear that exacerbates the situation. But that doesn't affect the truth one bit. Regardless of where we "hang out" in our thoughts, we always operate from Now. It's the only temporal place there is.
Where else is there?
It's analogous to place. We can imagine ourselves any place in the world, walking sanding beaches or enjoying an urban night scene, but we can only be one place - here, where we are. It's just that simple and true.
Okay, let's let that settle in and consider it settled.
This Business of Now
This business of Now being the only time is not just an academic pursuit. If Now is the only real time, how we spend Now is critical to every aspect of our lives and culture, individually and collectively. Indeed, learning how to spend our Nows is the only real endeavor we can embark upon. When we're fantasizing, worrying or otherwise engaged in past/future dramas and issues, we are quite literally lost in illusion.
So, what are our options for Now? At some 80 million thought per day (a suggested average), we've got "time" for an awful lot of thoughts.
But then, that's a day, that's not Now. Our options for Now are limited to a single thought, or a moment of non-thinking - which opens another can of worms that we'll address shortly.
A single thought, bubbling up from billions of potential thoughts, is what we have Now. It might be an idea, a bit of music, a worry, a passion - could be anything. But that raises questions as well. Where do thoughts "bubble up" from? How much control do we have over which thoughts "bubble up?" And what sort of patterns can we find considering these thoughts - especially in light of our moment by moment experience of this phenomenon that we call (human) Life on Earth.
I support the concept that, regardless of the myriad topics and monologs we have bubbling up, thoughts can be categorized into two opposing themes. These themes are best described as Love and fear.
Love or Fear
Love or fear. We like to pretend it's far more complicated, but the more we try to complicate this simple thing - this one thought at this one moment - the more we are forced into denial or led to the truth.
We've been cluttered and clouded for so long it may take some Now to appreciate this truth, but the best way to confirm or reject this idea is by analyzing your own thoughts, and see if the results don't fall rather neatly in thoughts of Love or thoughts of fear.
Here's a primer on what to look for. Thoughts that touch our anger, frustration, fear, depression, anxiety, helplessness, boredom, rage, grief, fantasy, domination, hate, control - all some form of fear. (A fearful state, like anxiety, can be addressed directly because it's an active emotion. A fearful condition, like depression, is the result of fear "locking us up" to the point where we can't even feel the fearfulness of the condition any longer. But that's for another Now.)
Thoughts that touch our happiness, compassion, vibrancy, hope, courage, contentment, warmth, empathy, aesthetics, commitment, forgiveness, generosity, peace - you guessed it, such thoughts and feelings stem from Love.
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