John Zeitler

So, last week we learned how to tell time in Japanese. Part of this lesson was, of course, the vocabulary involved, which included a very remarkable word: 今. いま is the word in hiragana, and transliterated it’s (as I bet you’ve guessed by now) ima. Literally, the word translates to “now”. It’s a bit more than that, though.

Many different forms of Buddhism, including my preferred flavor of Zen, have at their core the thought of the present moment. Past and future are but illusions– memories and fantasies, respectively. All that truly exists, all that can be controlled (if at all) is the present moment. Right now. That’s not to discount the importance of the past and the future, of course, but you must never value them nearly as highly as you do this moment, or this one, or this one now. Right now.

I tend to think of myself as overplanning for the future, but sometimes– some days, like today– I get thrown into a situation that reminds me of this fact. All there is is the present moment, the right now. To plan beyond it and hinge your hopes on the future is folly, because all there is right now, is right now.

On a completely unrelated note, 今 is also a very good album by BT. Which is how I first came across the word, but the concept– that’s been with me all along.

Finally, kanji is a huge pain in the ass to type into WordPress.