Living in the Moment

'Live in the moment!' is a principle which can be constructive under certain circumstances, but as a more general maxim can be inappropriate. It usually means 'Pay attention to what is happening here and now!', so when it is addressed to someone who is daydreaming, lost in memory, or planning some later activity, it is a useful corrective to an ignoring of what is presently at hand. However, applying it literally on all occasions produces fragmentary superficial responsiveness: living from moment to moment, taking things only at their face value. For, as is, the Now is unconnected to other Nows, and the Here to others Heres. Most likely, what the prescribers of the phrase intend is to live constantly in the Here and Now. But the problem is more than merely linguistic. Someone who, walking along in a daydream, then suddenly finding themselves at the edge of river, needs to know more than what is immediately at hand in order to establish what to do next. For example, whether or not they know how to swim, and how clean and deep the water is, are both relevant to what can happen next, and neither are determinable from the immediate Here and Now alone. What is substantively erroneous in the maxim is that a Moment is always more than a mere Instant--the Now is the continuation of the Then, and the Here is of a piece with Elsewhere. Remembering who one is, and taking into account as much of environing conditions as possible, are necessary to creatively living in the Moment, which is, otherwise, only shadow-play.