Parables and mythical stories have been with us throughout time. From earliest of cave drawings to modern writing and film parables, as guides to human experience, have been a source of inspiration throughout history. They are teachers that guide us through challenges confronting us at different stages in our lives. Parables provide us with images and symbols that crystallize human experience into digestible pieces. As we are symbol seeking creatures, parables serve to illustrate each lesson we are about to embark on. They inform, they guide and they teach.

Periodically, in our collective human journey, we have major awakenings. Our history books inform us of this; all of our major disciplines are affected. A breakthrough in science often leads to a breakthrough in human awareness. For example, “the sun does not revolve around earth,” but, “the earth revolves around sun” struck down a core belief that could not be sustained by facts. Earth-centeredness equaled self-centeredness during this period of our history and both were dealt a fatal blow. As a result, we humans became part of something larger than ourselves, a part of Universe if you will, rather than being its center. When we take a long view of our recorded history we see that such awakenings have occurred regularly and continue to this day.

With information explosion of modern times we are likely on threshold of another major awakening. The world becomes smaller as each of us gains access to new information sources via Internet; and as benefits from that expanding knowledge base continue to grow. One could argue that our collective consciousness is uniting as we abandon isolationism and move toward growing awareness that we are indeed One.

There are three basic areas or modules of time that are most commonly referred to:

1)The Past 2)The Present 3)The Future

What I would like to do is have you work out where “present” is though. In time it has taken you to read just those last few words, that space in time that we might refer to as present has gone. Gone where? Gone into Past. The present then could be determined as not existing at all, or at very best existing in a merest speck of time imaginable. Every occuring event becomes a series of moments in past almost instantaneously. Admittedly, not very far in past, but in past neverthless. The conclusion? The present – for all practical purposes, does not exist! This may seem like a very weird concept, but bear with me. As present is so fleeting, only way to “live in it” or handle it, is to look into future, try to anticipate that which may occur during those moments, and prepare for it. Let's look at future. We will never catch up with future. It is always ahead of us and we will never experience events within it.

So where on earth does that leave us? The easiest way of confronting subject (and to get back to living in now), is to turn away from time as we currently measure it and mentally change units into events.We can do this because we know that events have occurred, do occur, and will continue to occur. At last we have a constant! Something we can work with. To “live in now” then, is to deal with, or handle event with which our minds are currently occupied. How do you do that? Plan for now by projecting your thoughts into future.

A very practical example of this can be seen in pension plans (okay, I know it`s a boring subject, but it illustrates point nicely!).. No sooner do we leave school and get a job, than someone is presenting us with a whole bunch of information we would much rather not know about – money at retirement. Probably only thing that really makes any sense to us at time is word “money”! The principle is right there in front of us though. We are being encouraged to carry out an event in now, by projecting our thinking into future.

The principle then, is not new. For some reason though, we tend to push principle aside and thus constantly finding ourselves struggling to overcome situations that we come up against. Of course, we cannot prepare for every event. We do tend to get taken by surprise quite often. The result? Impulse reactions often rule day.

Okay, so we have spent some time looking at situatiion and coming up with a theory. What do we have as a result? What can we apply as a practical tool to help us “live in now”? Firstly we need to recognise and accept that we cannot change that which has already occurred. That may sound obvious at first reading, but remember that those things that have already occurred include those that have occurred right up to last split second. The logic follows then, that if we are to make any changes, they must be applied to those things or situations that are yet to fall upon us. How do we do that? We cannot travel into future, so all that is left is to prepare for instant in which they arrive. Every action and thought must kick into gear automatically. What thoughts? What actions? Different cakes call for different ingredients, but they often have a common theme. In baking world what would that be? Flour perhaps?