Life, Death, and the Present Moment (Via Sam Harris)

Here's a wonderful video made from an excerpt of a Sam Harris lecture called "Life, Death & the Present Moment":

I find him to be an incredibly insightful, articulate, and captivating speaker.

This is a very succinct combination of ideas from [at least] two texts: (1) The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and (2) the Buddhist meditation on death.

I posted the some of the text to this awhile ago on Facebook .. I just recently found this video.

I appreciate (and find apt) his very subtly violent imagery around 5:50 via strategic use of the word "hostage":

If you're constantly ruminating, about what you just did, what you should have done, what you would have done if you only had the chance, you will miss your life. You'll fail to connect with it. You'll fail to connect with other people. Being the mere hostage of the next thought that comes careening into consciousness isn't useful."

Even more interesting is the transcript of this section from the original lecture:

If you’re constantly ruminating about what you just did, or what you should have done, or what you would have done if you only had the chance, you will miss your life. You’ll fail to connect with it. You’ll fail to connect with other people. When other people talk, you’ll be waiting for them to shut up, so that you can say what’s on your mind to say. Even when you don’t have an opportunity to talk, in a moment like this, when you just need to listen, the conversation, as an automaticity, continues. You have a voice in your head that keeps saying things. Haven’t you noticed? The conversation we have with ourselves every minute of the day comes at a cost. I’m not saying that discursive thought is not necessary, or useful, but it is a mechanism by which most of our suffering is inflicted. The sorrow, and the self-doubt, and the anxiety, and the fear, and, yes, the fear of death. Thinking is useful. But being perpetually lost in thought – isn’t. Being the mere hostage of the next thought that comes careening into consciousness isn’t useful.

I've been thinking about this subject a lot lately. My friends/peers/fellow parents are all so busy here in Seattle. It seems that everyone i know is busy 100% of the time, meeting the respective obligations of their lives. I have people I consider to be close friends that I have not seen in over a year. A fellow parent tried to schedule a playdate with my younger daughter and we had to book 6 weeks out (this was not due to our schedule, my daughter has lots of open time).

I think it's helpful to suspend these day to day activities for a few minutes and consider the bigger picture, which I believe is exactly Sam Harris' point.