Everything Only Happens Right Now

Are memories of me holding a phone yesterday more Real or less Real than say, me right now holding the phone and writing/typing this! 

Which of these is less or more real or can there be uncertainty about the “realness” in general about any experience (which only ever happens Now)? 

Memory certainly seems arise from DO as it’s triggered by another experience which led to it. But where does it come from? Dunno. Are we talking biology here? 
I know a person who believes it comes from some collective consciousness up in space. Like a mothership or God maybe  

I mean maybe. I do giggle at such ideas  

My intent was to question Realness of any experience even the one we would call “very real” like petting our own lovely dog we live so much. How can I be certain that this is real or be certain this but a dream? 

Also which do I value more, the one I believe is real (holding phone right now, breathing) or the one I believe is a fantasy-memory? 

How can I be certain the memory is really accurate? The content of it at arising. I’m in the kitchen now thinking about my studio room and guitars hanging on the walls but I can’t see it from where I am.

I go there Now and as I approach I look and … sure thing! My studio is exactly where I believed it will be and all looks very Real to me. Also feels good. But the question now is; is the kitchen still there where I just came from or is it “dismantled” as I left it How can we be certain about this. Here I go with uncertainty as I can’t really bet on any of this. 

EDIT; edited to add more stuff. Not for clarity. 

Chris if you are ok with this could we change the topic title to ‘Validity and Realness of Memories’ as we all agree, I assume, that all experience is ever arising here and now. 

Just a suggestion of course. 

Chris Marti wrote: Why is much of our world so reliable for us - the stuff in my house, my family, the stories in the books I've read?

Perhaps it's the other way around, they are 'things' because they are persistent, reliable. If they were evanescent, changing fundamentally from moment to moment we wouldn't see them as things, or at least useful constructs.

Chris Marti wrote: I'm okay with that formulation, Philip, as long as this is not saying there is no such thing as perceptual impermanence. The objects we perceive have some basis in an underlying reality that gets perceived and constructed by the mind for us to live within. This experiential construction process is what our meditation practice focuses on. The nature of whatever underlying reality is like what science focuses on.

Yes, conventionally permanent, we infer the objects intrinsic existence based on its apparently slowly changing properties and also on its usefulness to us in navigating the world.

But if an object has to have a past in order to have a present, does that mean 'now' is not that simple after all?

Yes the kitchen will be fabricated again in the mind as I approach it but now my studio gets dismantled as I leave it and swoosh gone!  

This is more of a Koan for me than some certain view on things. If a tree falls in a forest and no one was there to hear it, did it make a sound?

If no one is in my studio right now, does it exist?

I hope no one is taking this discussion too seriously  

Im hungry now ... off to the fridge to get me some munching! Im very certain the fridge will be fabricated at the very spot I usually find it  

Chris. I’m not a smart guy who has all the fancy words to discuss stuff in great length  

I shared my reflections as raw as they are. 

You say, that shargrol said “basic sanity”. I believe people see “sanity” differently. Tibetans might see sanity to be “see all this as a dream” while you might say “my kitchen is always there even when I don’t see it”  

To me it’s “can’t be certain”. And I’m ok with this. This doesn’t mean I’m a nihilist  
Right now I’m annoyed with my boys, the big guy being rough with the little guy and the little guy being rough with the dog and me just wanting to have my morning coffee in piece and quiet All this feels very real to me. Very certain. 

If we are to discuss this a bit more seriously (but still allowed to joke as one sees fit) we have to break this up and also speak in a way simple people like myself, not native to English can follow. 

Where does memory come from? 
Answer is “where does an itch come from? 

Now are we talking content of memory or the mechanism we call memory? I think we need both to discuss. Are we using biology or are we only talking meditative observations? 

As far as I see we can only speculate. Science is saying memory is in the brain. New Age folks say it’s on the Mothership! 
If im to try and observe, apart from DO, I have no clue as to where memory is “stored” if it’s valid and based on “real” stuff. 

How do you know with certainty if your mind is not just playing a Loop all the time? You say it “returns in a consistent and reliable way”. My looper guitar pedal does the same.

Schizophrenic person has “people” return in a consistent and reliable way”. We choose to say that is not real. 

We can not see, smell, hear, touch, taste Reality directly and all we get is but the … brain, mind figuring out what these impulses might be. 

Is it possible that you and I call “green” a colour we actually see differently? This is simplistic but we can apply this to a bigger picture too. 
We can not tell with certainty. And that’s ok with me. 

Just to add; 

my apologies to Chris and Phil if I came across as disrespectful. That was not my intent.

I laughed at the subject in general because I see no way we can be 100% certain about this. Or maybe I’m too certain about this not being certain? 

Ok I hear you. I will try and moderate that part of my personality. 
My apologies Chris. 

Chris, this is interesting but I'm not sure what the underlying question is, or basic questions are in this.

You asked or said:

  What are memories and where do they come from?

What does any of this have to do with the fact that experience plays out now, and only now? Just what is this thing we call now, anyway?

Practice should result in basic sanity.

 It's right to say that we humans only perceive a tiny slice of something that we call "now." But clearly, as far as I can tell, we don't perceive things that have some kind of existence outside of that bubble. 

The objects we perceive have some basis in an underlying reality that gets perceived and constructed by the mind for us to live within. This experiential construction process is what our meditation practice focuses on. 

Is seeing and understanding the construction process what you are getting at here?

Thanks!

Ah, got it thanks. That does feel like a fundamental question.  

Some argue that there likely is a world outside of our immediate experience BUT that there is no way to validate this with absolute certainty. 

There is no way to be certain that this forum exists once I switch it off and make me some coffee in the kitchen I believe to be down the hallway from where I sit All this might be fabricated as I go and presented in the mind. 

I can choose to believe that the kitchen is there even when I’m not in it. Or I can say it doesn’t exist. Or I can just be uncertain of either. 

Even the Right Now … what is “real” about it? How can we be certain that this sensation of my fingers typing on a phone screen is “real” or just some projection … dunno … from a “mothership”  

Thats what I argue. What is Real? The Now? Well everything is Now even the trance state as long there is consciousness there.

who is right, the Tibetan seeing all as a dream or Chris saying that his kitchen is real even when he is not inside the kitchen to experience it? 

And how can there be certainty either way? 

Oh no, I wrote a reply but forgot to hit send and lost it. 

Bummer! Our loss.  I usually type it in Notepad first for that reason and then paste in.

It was in response to Chris mentioning stage-related fascination with the perception of unreality or ephemeral quality of experience. 

Which made me think about how I often think that the relationship to things (such as practice, God, other people, etc) is the more interesting part of insight practices, as opposed to the (technique(s) of or even concepts of) practices themselves. 

Not sure I explained it well. But I am tired!! 

I hear you Chris  

I just hope you don't place me into this "stage-dependent believing", as in being a rigid believer that I'm inside of MATRIX (the movie) and stuff is being downloaded to me as it hits the senses  

I honestly hope people take my smileys seriously, as I really use them to depict my facial expression and mood. I find this possibility of having absolutely no certainty about this (being real or not real) rather amusing  

But yes, I do think there are those who might bite into such beliefs and hold on to it like a mad man. As with so many other beliefs of course. Like firmly believing that there indeed is a forum "out there" even when we don't use it (Im just kidding) (with respect)

I do appreciate your view on this and all other views Ona and Mark might have as well as Phil's. It's an interesting topic!