TIME

[stan]

Surfing

[Brooklynluv]

To me, the statement about living in the past seems more symbolic than literal. Wouldn't the difference be determined by one's frame of mind? On the one hand, each of us has a physical body that it functioning in the present with every heartbeat, every breath and all the other processes that are constantly going to keep the body alive (most of which we are not even consciously aware). In a way, our bodies are always living in the present moment.
Many would agree, however, that a person is made up of a lot more than a body. We are also souls, energetic entities that are eternal. Since our souls are of energy rather than matter, they are not confined within the limits of space/time; since time (at least time as we know it) really only exists on the physical plane.
When a person is in a dream, they are still attached to the physical body but they are not on the physical plane. That may be why there is no sense of time in a dream. The same thing goes for one who is daydreaming. They might be awake (physically) but their consciousness is not on the physical plane, therefore they are not consciously living in the present.
When we focus on a task, or really pay attention to what is going on around us in the physical world then we are living in the present moment; our consciousness is in the physical plane of existence. It is when we lose focus or go through the day without being at full attention that we start to leave the world of time.
If we consider the possibility that our consciousness shapes our reality and it is not bound to the physical world then the idea of living in the past becomes more explainable. Generally, when people go off into thought they are thinking about the past; memories we have experienced at a previous time in our lives. This then becomes our perspective and everything that happens in the present is instantly compared in our mind to every past memory of a similiar situation. This is usually the basis of how one will react to and interact with the physical world.
We are not really living in the present moment unless our total consciousness is in the physical world. It is when our mind is clear of past thoughts that we can truly experience life in the present.
The same goes for worrying about the future. Our worries of the future are based on experiences from the past. The future is comprised of the past and the present but if our focus is always on the past, we will miss the present moment needed to make any future a reality and we will be left with a future that is simply a variation of our past.

[lighting strikes twice]

The poster I believe is referring to a state of consciousness. Most of us see external events as separate from ourselves. The poster may be alluding to we create our world. Generally, we don't see any correlation between the inner life and our outer world. If we could make the connection maybe we start to see the connection which is very much different than are normal state. If we create than we see the past manifesting. Does that make any sense?

[Browney]

There's a depth of wisdom not often seen in a 24 year old in your comments, Brooklynluv.
I agree totally with your observations and would add that thoughts make the world, it's memories that deconstruct our lives.
As humans, the accumulation of personas based on memory affect the daily creativity that constructs our lives. Most of these things happen at a totally subconscious level. But with consciousness, thought power, we all have the possibility of remodelling any future creative reality in any way we wish. The major problem being of course that we all operate from the baseline of the existing hardware that IS our past experience.
As many past luminaries have stated ... "Thoughts are things".