This is likened to a mala: although it is formed by one hundred and eight individual beads, as each bead passes through our forefinger and thumb, we can only count up to the bead immediately ahead.
Similarly, a person’s lifetime is sure to contain incalculable moments, but the only one we can hold on to is an instant; the past is gone and the future yet to come. Yet we persist in thinking: “I” participated in an event to release living beings yesterday, “I” am now at an event to release living beings, and “I” will again attend an event to release living beings tomorrow. Our notion of “I” embraces not just yesterday and tomorrow but also a very distant point in time in the future. Actually, the real “I” exist only in an instant.
- Quote from The Four Seals of Dhama, "All Phenomena Lack Self-Existence"