Each moment - A clean plate

'The past and the future are just thoughts'  This was a phrase I picked up from a podcast with little elaborations provided.

It seems to imply they are not real, not solid and are illusive. Perhaps it is suggesting that thoughts on the past are delusive and thoughts on the future imaginary. It probably puzzles over why we are then constantly obsessing over either the past or the future. This phrase dawns on us the folly of all the wasted present moments.

Research has shown that memories can be inaccurate and constructed. There is this process called reconsolidation where upon recalling a past experience the emotions accompanying the recalling reinforces the initial emotions of the experience. Each time we reset a memory we tend to restrengthen the connection between the memory and the feelings. This will be intensified if we keep on ruminating a bad experience for instance.

Furthermore no 2 persons will remember an incident with exactly the same details and the same emotions. This is because the perception, feelings and mental fabrication (conditioned habitual response) that accompany the encounter is different for every individual. All these seem to caution us against being too caught up with past memories, which may not be as real as we thought.

As for thoughts on the future they may seem less fruitless than past memories because some amount of planning is necessary for us  to function or make a living. However being too obsessed with the future robs us of all the 'present moments' such that we miss out a lot of our lives. Even more unproductive would be worries about the future, much of which is usually unnecessary.

However these are just logical arguments that I seek to help explain this statement that 'the past and future are just thoughts'. I have yet another feel for it. It occurs to me that our perception of time as linear may not be that solid after all. Someone said that 'time is like a string of present moments'. Our concept of the past, present and future as linear is by introducing a string. What if there is in reality no such string?

Can't each moment be lived on a clean plate?