It is very surprising indeed that man feels the presence of "the past" only when, at "the present," he recalls his memory. What's more, even his feeling that "the future" does exist is but a feeling that he derives from the total recall he had at "the present time" of some "sequential conditions" of the past event. Is it not to be admitted that we ourselves feel that we are constantly at "the present" throughout our lifetime? Now, what do all these talks about our having "the past" and "the future" has to do with us? Is there something wrong with our concept of time or is it our memory that is in the wrong?

Yesterday and Tomorrow

No doubt, every one of us often uses both these words in our daily life. And if you would just like to go deeper into the issues they underlie, you would no doubt come to realize how interesting and astonishing the implications are. Let’s take a look at some simple examples below.
When we try to recall our past, the death of someone a year ago, and events a few hours back, are these not just a present attempt to retrieve the things stored as a memory? When we throw a ball from points A to B, for instance, we tend to say that the ball was at point A. Does this not mean that at the time the ball was at point A, the rays reflected by the ball left an impression or were recorded in our brains, and that it is this impression or record that we are trying to retrace at the present? Another example: When we move from our original location (say location A) to another location (say location B), we are apt to say—at the time we get to B—we were at A just now. The only reason for this is that, at the time we were at A, all our senses received a variety of stimuli from our surroundings, and these are stored in our brains as memory. At the time we get to B, we recall them, which consequently lead us to say that we were at A just now. Similarly, when we are driving from one particular place to another, we will, for a similar reason, habitually say that we were at that particular place at the time we get to our destination. Now, what if we assume our earth to be a kind of vehicle? Is it not a fact that the earth rotates around its axis and that we are but objects that have remained stuck on the earth’s crust following the earth wherever it goes? The earth takes us with it as it rotates such that we are able to feel the presence of day and night. At the time we are brought from one position to another by the earth’s rotation, we record a series of conditions, which, when recalled, leads us to say that in “the past