Thoughts on Time

I am always looking for more knowledge when it comes to the subject of time. Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now emphasizes that past and present and time itself are mere illusions which need to be dropped in deference to the present eternal moment called "Now." I have practiced this and I agree that the less time spent thinking about the past or future, the better one feels, as far as the more peace one feels.

Then there is a book by a guy with a very long name called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I explored this book about 20 years ago, it was a fascinating read. Basically it talks about “optimal experience” being those times where time disappears and you are just “in the zone” so to speak. When playing music perhaps, or when involved in a detailed task of some sort. This idea is paralleled by Tolle when he recommends using “clock time” for tasks needed in this world, but not to let your mind drift into the substrata of “psychological time,” basically identifying with a false self that has no identity without reference to the past. I have found these ideas helpful in quickly gaining peace in the middle of a busy day simply by trying to forget time and get into the “flow” of whatever I am doing in the present moment.

Imagine my pleasure when, while listening to my A Course in Miracles audiobook, this little gem popped up during a discussion entitled Heralds of Eternity:
“Why should it take so many holy instants to let this be accomplished, when one would do? There is but one. The little breath of eternity that runs through time like golden light is all the same; nothing before it, nothing afterwards. You look upon each holy instant as a different point in time. It never changes. All that it ever held or will ever hold is here right now. The past takes nothing from it, and the future will add no more. Here, then, is everything.”

I believe if we just let that thought sink in and just feel that same constant never-changing eternal moment that we are in right now, everything will flow and we can forget the past completely, which seems to be the real key to peace.

It is starting to sink in!

Three years. Thirty-six months. 1,085 days. 156 Sundays. That is approximately how long I have been reading, studying, listening, memorizing, repeating, writing, absorbing. Everything I can get my hands on. Scores of books. Big tubs full of audiobooks. I never thought I would be someone who devours physics books. Or stays up til 1 on a weeknight reading the "Nag Hamadi Scriptures." But here I am. There I am, browsing another bookstore's "New Age", "Religion" and "Science" sections. Craving ideas. Knowledge. Putting together ideas from here and there and mixing them like a chef to see if the parts are compatible. To find out if the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. Guess what? It is! The more I read, the more I listen, the more I learn, the tighter the pieces fit together and the more confidence I gain that my theories that came to me three years ago are onto something useful and important to me. And if they are useful and important to me, I suspect they could be useful and important to a lot of people. These days every day I am noticing that the practices I have been preaching are coming to me naturally much more often, and my days are going better day to day. Every bit of information I add to the grey matter helps focus my purpose to a sharper point in front of my vision. I feel my purpose gelling. My calling getting within reach. It feels good to wake up with a purpose. I encourage you to do what you feel you are called to do. Anything else is just shorting yourself.