Why can't I live in the present? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Speaker: The question asked is that why can’t the brain be in the present? Because the present is not. You see, your mind makes sense of the world around. Your mind continuously makes sense of this world all around. But can your mind make sense of this moment? This moment is outside the domain of your mind. Mind never lives in this moment. How do you know that your mind is functional? How do you know that you have a functional brain? How do you know? Through your thoughts. Right? That is what the mind is always doing. Thinking. All memories, all hopes are nothing but the thoughts. The mind lives in these thoughts, these images. Right? All of that is past.

The mind exists in time: in past or in future. The very existence of mind is time and this moment is not time. You go into your mind, observe it. Whatsoever it does, it has to do with time. Let me you give an example. You can never think of something which is not there in your past. Try it. The mind falls flat, falls absolutely dead when it is asked to go beyond time. Try thinking of something which is beyond your past. Can you do that? Can you think of anything which is not there in your past? The mind falls dead the moment time is taken from it. Another example, try imagining anything which is not in space. Try. Give me a single example.

Listener 1: Happiness.

Speaker: Imagine it. When I say imagine, there must be an image with it and surely happiness has an image in your mind. How do you know that somebody is happy? So, there is an image of happiness. Expression on the…