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Is sustainability antithetical to living in the now?

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RAM

RAM

Hail the keys!
From what I have seen, members of the Nexus espouse living in the present moment quite frequently to avoid being haunted by past and future woes. We also seem to be largely concerned with the environment. For myself, I love protecting nature and am devoting much of my career to it because I personally enjoy being in nature and not being poisoned by pollution and toxins.

But many who talk about sustainability seem to do so with a constant fear of "running out," that "our planet won't be enough," and that we are generally doomed because of our excessive resource usage. Isn't this mentality totally contrary to not always being worried about what will happen in the future and just trying to be happy now? Shouldn't none of this matter if we all try to be happy and peaceful people?

Many of our fears are based in not being nor having enough, and this seems like it could be another case of that.
 
All our lives are lived in the present moment, even if the way we live them is determined by concerns about the possible future outcomes of our way of living.

Living sustainably may or may not have much influence on future events, but, like living in love, living in harmony etc., the benefits can be found in the moment. Just the feeling that you are not contributing to hate and destruction makes the moment more pleasant.
 
For me living in the moment isn't necessarily escaping past and present woes, although i can see the value of that kind of practice. And it doesn't mean that i don't plan for the future of myself or my family. For me living in the moment is to stop every now and then and to enjoy who i am , where i am, who i am with and any other sentient stimulus that i am experiencing.

As far as sustainability goes i think that the ability to just be able to stop and enjoy things as they are detracts from the desire for consumption because everything is ok just as it is in any given moment that you stop to appreciate it.
 
RAM said:
From what I have seen, members of the Nexus espouse living in the present moment quite frequently to avoid being haunted by past and future woes.
Click to expand...

Experiencing (my)self (as whole) in the now, means the acceptance and integration of all unfolding phenomenoms, even thoughts which content plays in a fictional past or future.
I am now-ness is not about the the mind ( "think tank" ) and its varying content, rather an ever presence.

RAM said:
But many who talk about sustainability seem to do so with a constant fear of "running out," that "our planet won't be enough," and that we are generally doomed because of our excessive resource usage.
Click to expand...

To generate the highest resolution of I-am-now-reality I am referring to the "A matter of Focus?" thread.
I) To bring full attention to the now, every past and upcoming experience is confronted and integrated. Otherwise I have to give off a part of my attention capacity to permanently scan my environment for upcoming stimuli which would probably trigger my unwanted and avoided experience (thoughts, feelings - mostly fear / threat to imagined self).
II) Anxiety/fear is an alarming system but no proof of truth/future and because in the presence space is one, I focus attention on what I want (values = attitude of goal-oriented behaviour) and do it. That means f.e. I live sustain, as much as I am aware off. It is always me who knows truth, because subconciousness and conciousness are connected. I cannot cheat myself, there is no forgetting just full commitment.
III) (Cosmical) awareness of what/how ever is is perfection, always (dissolution of duality). In my human experience I am the ace in the endless flow of perfection.


tseuq
 
Living sustainably isn't a solution to our current problem. Those who are doing it on that premise are missing the point. What the world is going through now is just a natural cycle that has to happen. The world has to shed several billion people before permaculture can sustain it. So yes. Live in the now. Eat all the cheeseburgers you want. Take all the pharmaceuticals you want. Burn all the fossil fuels you want. However, many find that living in the now is much easier in sustainable models. Having control over your food and medicine production is about the highest form of freedom on this earth and it naturally brings us more in sync with our ancestral biorhythms. In other words, the life we're living is much more in sync with what our bodies and minds seek in the "moment". We socialize when we need to, we solve the problems mostly when we see them, we rest when we need it, etc. Not that it's not hard work. Not that we can always be in the "moment". As humans we have the ego response for a reason. To preserve our sense of self. Much of that requires planning for future events. But there's better regulation between the cycles of preserving and "being". In the standard living model there are for most of us tons of obscurities, arbitrary work deadlines, and a fundamental lack of ability to get basic shit done (like fixing a leaky roof or producing food) that keeps us constantly tied to the whims of the outside world.

Which brings up another issue about the quality of the moment we're living. As counterintuitive as it seems there is a difference between impulsiveness and what most people mean by being in the now. Most peoples first perception of being in the now is excessive drug usage, sex, fast food, acquisition of cool things etc. But counterintuitively a lot of that taps into our "preservation" pathways and not actually those ones that bring us to the present moment. They stimulate those reward systems that are designed for immediate preservation instead of those that are more nourishing. For example you grab a cheeseburger and get intense satisfaction from the calories and salt but all that other non-nutritive stuff that plays a role in health is deficient. You may confuse the "rush" with satisfaction, but if you were to taste the real satisfaction of prolonged healthy eating it's subtle cumulative effect on well-being far outweighs the former. It also reduces your urge to design your life around the acquisition of high reward moments freeing up the mental space to simply sit and absorb the moment which is emotionally and spiritually more nourishing.

So it's only contradictory depending on your reasons. For me sustainability is a liberation of the self, not an attempt to save the world. It's an attempt for me to get away from the junky-like aspects of consumerism so that I can be more connected to the subtler energies that bring me to the moment
 
The earth is a dynamic system in the same way that the body of an individual organism is a dynamic system.

Sustainability can be thought of as showing compassion and care for the health of the global organism. Compassion exists 'in the now,' as it were.

Blessings
~ND
 
To me living in the now is about feeling and thinking here and now and focusing on how my actions in the now bring about changes in the now. I used to wait for the future to show up, but now I realize it will never come. It is only the now I have and that is where the feeling, thought and work needs to be done. This doesn't mean that I don't look at the past or future to help me make my decisions.

Like others have said, sustainability is about liberation as well as a sense of compassion and care for the ecology we share the planet with. It is also about our survival because many of us understand we could not survive on a dead planet, yet.

In the bigger picture it really I don't think its as important as it may seem. The world will change, with or without us. Things will evolve, species have and will continue to go extinct, and eventually the sun will destroy planet earth and everything on it.

I think some of the idea of sustainability comes from fear or control orientated thinking. Humans seem fearful of change and insist on trying to maintain things and keep them from changing without their permission. The road to hell is paved with good intentions,

I don't like to see plastic bottles floating in the stream, or cigarette butts on the ground. We are definitely changing things in a different and faster pace than what they would had humans not been on this planet, and most of it doesn't look very good. I don't think its possible to put things back the way they were, nor to I think its natural to try and keep them at what ever stage they are at.

What I do think is natural, is to be present in the now, and make each little decision I am faced with based on what I know and feel is "right". I think this is natural, it is living in the now, and it is the most stainable way to live.
 
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