It is said that a human being is not free because everything that he does is caused by something else that preceded it in time. But a human being always acts only in the present, and the present is outside of time, it is only a touchpoint between the past and the future, and therefore in the present moment a human being is always free.
A sage was asked what the most important time of life is, who the most important person is and what the most important work is.
And the sage replied: “The most important time is the present, because only in the present does a human being have power over himself.
“The most important person is the one with whom you are interacting during this present moment, because no one can know whether or not he will ever interact with anyone else again.
“The most important work is to love that person, because a human being is sent into life only so that he could love everyone.”
Lost time will never be returned, an evil deed will never be undone.
— John Ruskin
It is only when we are certain of our eternity that we are able to take advantage of every minute.
It is only when invest it with the consciousness of our spirituality that the most insignificant obligation does not seem too low for us.
— Martineau
The first and most common temptation that seizes a person is the temptation of preparing to live instead of just living.
“It’s all right for me step back for some time from what should be done and what my spiritual nature demands of me because I am not ready,” a person tells himself. “Let me prepare myself first and time will come when I will begin leading a life that is wholly in accordance with my conscience.”
The falsehood of this temptation consists in the fact that a person retreats from a life in the present, the only real life, and postpones it to the future, when the future does not belong to the human being.
To resist this temptation, a person must understand and remember that there is no time for preparation, that he must live the best way possible now, the way he is, that the self-perfection that he needs is only a self-perfection in love, which takes place only in the present. And therefore he must not postpone his life and must live fully in the present for God, i.e. for all those who make demands on his life, knowing that at any moment he can be deprived of the possibility of this service and that it was for this hourly service that he came into the world.
The present is the only state in which our spiritual essence manifests itself. So let us revere the present, for that is where God is.
