"If you dwell on the here and now, how do you plan or think about the future?"
"Maybe it is unnecessary to point this out, but it is not possible to dwell on the here and now. Once you dwell, here and now are both gone. There is a sense of non-dwelling more than anything else, actually. That said, I don't think that is the spirit of this question. The assumption is that if you are continually bringing your attention into the present, you risk being carried away by the tides of change rather than intelligently crafting the life you want. Also tucked into this question, perhaps, is the idea that meditators are attempting to achieve a state of blandness and nonreactivity, as if the 'here and now' were a place where you don't feel or do anything. But of course we have to think about the future and make intelligent financial, emotional, and professional plans. Planning for the future is not an abnegation of the meditative state, nor is goal-setting, strategizing, or owning your hopes and dreams and all the longing that goes along with them. When you sit down to plan, you can be totally aware of that. When you think about your goals, be totally aware of that. When you research strategies, be totally aware of that. How do you feel in your body? What mental processes are at work and where does your chain of thought lead? Does it make you happy, nervous, sad, confused, all of the above? Rather than not thinking about the future, notice what it is like to be you, thinking about the future. There is no conflict. Awareness is something you bring to wherever you are and whatever you feel more than it is a way of strong-arming yourself into a preferred state of mind."
