Thepresent is the period oftime that is occurring now. The present is contrasted with thepast, the period of time that has already occurred; and thefuture, the period of time that has yet to occur.
It is sometimes represented as ahyperplane inspace-time,[1] typically called "now", although modern physics demonstrates that such a hyperplane cannot be defined uniquely for observers in relative motion. The present may also be viewed asa duration.[2][3]
You shouldn't chase after the past or place expectations on the future. What is past is left behind. The future is as yet unreached. Whatever quality is present you clearly see right there, right there.
"The present" raises the question: "How is it that all sentient beings experiencenow at the same time?"[6] There is no logical reason why this should be the case and no easy answer to the question.[citation needed]
Buddhism and many of its associatedparadigms emphasize the importance of living in the present moment—being fully aware of what is happening, and not dwelling on thepast or worrying about thefuture.[7] This does not mean that they encouragehedonism, but merely that constant focus on one's current position in space and time (rather than future considerations, or past reminiscence) will aid one in relieving suffering. They teach that those who live in the present moment are the happiest.[8] A number ofmeditative techniques aim to help the practiser live in the present moment.
Christianity viewsGod as being outside of time and, from the divine perspective past, present and future are actualized in the now ofeternity. This trans-temporal conception of God has been proposed as a solution to the problem of divine foreknowledge (i.e. how can God know what we will do in the future without us being determined to do it) since at leastBoethius.[9]Thomas Aquinas offers the metaphor of a watchman, representing God, standing on a height looking down on a valley to a road where past, present and future, represented by the individuals and their actions strung out along its length, are all visible simultaneously to God.[10] Therefore, God's knowledge is not tied to any particular date.[11]
A visualisation of the present (dark blue plane) and past and futurelight cones in 2D space.
The original intent of the diagram on the right was to portray a 3-dimensional object having access to the past, present, and future in the present moment (4th dimension).[clarification needed]
Itfollows fromAlbert Einstein'sSpecial Theory of Relativity that there isno such thing as absolute simultaneity. When care is taken tooperationalise "the present", it follows that the events that can be labeled as "simultaneous" with a given event, can not be indirect cause-effect relationship. Such collections of events are perceived differently by different observers. Instead, when focusing on "now" as the eventsperceived directly, not as a recollection or a speculation, for a given observer "now" takes the form of the observer's pastlight cone. The light cone of a given event is objectively defined as the collection of events incausal relationship to that event, but each event has a different associated light cone. One has to conclude that in relativistic models of physics there is no place for "the present" as an absolute element of reality, and only refers to things that are close to us.[12] Einstein phrased this as:"People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion".[13][14]
Verbs in the present continuous tense indicate actions that are currently happening and will continue for a period of time.[16] In the sentence, "she is walking home," theverb phrase "is walking" is in the present continuous tense because it refers to a current action that will continue until a certain endpoint (when "she" reaches home). Verbs in the present perfect tense indicate actions that started in the past and is completed at the time of speaking.[17] For example, in the sentence, "She has walked home," the verb phrase "has walked" is in the present perfect tense because it describes an action that began in the past and is finished as of the current reference to the action. Finally, verbs in the present perfect continuous tense refer to actions that have been continuing up until the current time, thus combining the characteristics of both the continuous and perfect tenses.[16] An example of a present perfect continuous verb phrase can be found in the sentence, "she has been walking this route for a week now," where "has been walking" indicates an action that was happening continuously in the past and continues to happen continuously in the present.
^Letter from Einstein to the family of his lifelong friendMichele Besso, after learning of his death, (March 1955) as quoted inScience and the Search for God: Disturbing the Universe (1979) byFreeman Dyson, Ch. 17, "A Distant Mirror",
