The past represents the known,
Which is also in the domain of knowledge.
Based on the past,
That's to say,
Based on what we have known,
We project this to something called the future.
So the future is mere projection of the past in a modified form.
We predict something based on the past,
So what we predicted is still the extension of the past.
If one really observes carefully in life,
One may find that what one thinks about the future can be very different from what is really taking place in that time point.
Most people are living in this way,
With this way of thinking,
To be so attached to the conceptual past and the future.
The whole mind is therefore trapped in thoughts.
When the mind is always thinking about the past and future,
What the mind is doing is now at this moment.
So we fill this moment with all the past and future without seeing that one is only belonging to this moment.
All the thought activities are so unstable,
It's so changeable.
So when the mind is bound to the concept of the time,
The mind is ineffently in thoughts.
Thoughts exist in the mind as all kinds of narrations,
Using the time as the carrier.
So as long as there's a time conceptually,
There must be thoughts.
If the mind is caught up in time,
The mind can't really meet the present.
The present,
The now,
Is the actual time in terms of what it is.
There's no concept about that.
There's no measurement.
Only now.