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Sri Humananda "There are really no positive and negative forces, from the point of view of a still higher vision. These poles appear to be warring with each other when consciousness remains as a witness of creation. But it has to rise beyond this state of even a witness and enter into the very field and make this field a part of its own being." (Sri Swami Krishnananda) Changing in Time It is said that there are four dimensions – three of space, and one of time. This writing deals with time. Time is a very strange thing. The strangeness has roots in our definition of time, but also in our experience of it. In one way when we look at time in a technical manner, we think of it as a constant. You know, the tick, tick, tick sort of thing. And yes, it certainly is that. It never stops nor changes its speed. For stability and dependability it certainly is one of those things we can count on when all else fails us. Time continues unabatedly whether we pay attention to it or not, whether we care about it or not, whether we want it to slow down or speed up… it does none of that and it does not care either. It sticks to it’s rhythm at all times with no deviation. As humans we are deeply connected to time although we are largely unaware of it. Yet every second ticking by makes us one second older, and takes us from birth through the various stages of our development into old age and finally death, which is our physical destiny and one of the most certain things in an otherwise uncertain world. All this is really the technical aspect of time. We know it well although we don’t think about it much, but it is not a huge mystery. On a different level there is our experience of time. And with our experience we don’t have that monotonous tick-tick thing going all the time. But then time is also not experienced as a constant - quite the contrary. In a blatant example, when you put your hand on the hot stove, that second feels like thirty - a hundred! And when you are having a really good time it seems to pass ever so quickly. Vacations always seem too short and major life disturbances or other really crappy situations seem to drag on forever. So we have the unchanging technical aspect of time, and the “flexible” time experienced as passing in a shorter or longer way. What does Yoga say about this seeming paradox? As you probably know by now, Yoga is much more involved with the spiritual world than the phenomenal world. Yet Yoga (and especially Tantra) does not reject the phenomenal world at all. You can refer back to my writing “On Becoming 100” where it is emphasized that we must live a full outside life as well as a full inner life – both equally, not only one, and not only the other. In this sense, the guidance from Yoga comes to us from inside to outside – from the spirit to the phenomenal world. From the unchanging to the changing. Or really, from You to you. Whenever you have time, you have change. The phenomenal world could not exist without the dimension of time. And where there is time, there has to be change, and change is all around us all the time. There is a phrase that the only constant is change. Clever, and true in the phenomenal world but quite untrue in the spiritual world. Yet our experience is that we are constantly in the midst of change, and for as much as we have a spiritual aspect (the Self) that sits looking on peacefully without change, we also have a constantly changing body and an ever-changing mind. But since our consciousness is mostly occupied with the phenomenal world of change, we take change to be our very own nature. The advice from the spirit (Self) to the body-mind is to try and be more “in time”. By some explanation, here’s what is meant by that: You know the feeling – you are late and then you get hurried. The feeling then is that you are “behind the time” and you somehow have to get back to being “in time” (or on-time), and to do that, you must somehow “make up time”. As though by some means (such as your hurrying) you will now “catch up” to the “right time”. Time seems to be moving too fast. It’s all very interesting and it happens to us all the time. Similarly, though on the opposite end you are too early and now you have to wait. Now you are “ahead of time” and having to wait for time to “catch up” to where you are now. And so you mostly become bored waiting. Time seems to be moving slower and it really a bit of a “drag”. One thing seems clear - we are constantly reaching on some level to be “in time” rather than ahead of it or behind it. We dislike being late or bored and we try quite hard to be neither, because being in time feels so nice. And this goes for all aspects of your life – from your daily routine to major life moves. Doing them at the wrong time (too early or too late) make you feel pressured or bored. And so it is this reaching urge to be “in time” that Yoga uses as an instrument to show how being in time applies to the rest of your life. Because our evolution is influenced by both the spiritual and the phenomenal worlds – not by either one alone but by a balance of both. Yet it is only the phenomenal world that deals with time and is therefore subject to change and movement. From the silent and unmoving spirit (You, your Being) the lesson you are urged to learn is to be “in time”, but this “in time” now really has the meaning of “inside of time”. Because when “inside of time” you are neither early nor late. And you are neither in a hurry, nor bored. And then, at that very moment, the most amazing of things happen – you move with time because you are in time. And when in time, there is no future or past, but only the Pure Now. And guess where the Self lives? Yes, in the Now. And the Now only exists in time. And more - which is a critical idea to grasp - the Now moves inside of time. It is called “unfolding”. And you can experience it (know it) by becoming it. It is the only way the Now (which is also the Self) can be known - you have to become it. When the Self moves out of the Now, it becomes the self (ego, or self-created self-concept) in the phenomenal world with its past and future. I know, it is an amazing truth and yet true to Yoga, supremely simplistic, as all of Yoga is (or should be to you). The key point is that “in time” you don’t stop “moving” as such. Rather, you are in a constant state of becoming. Remember that it is your untainted consciousness that is your Being, and you exist because you are conscious of that being, and when “in time” – in the Now – your conscious existence assumes the state of pure Bliss. Hence the singular concept of “Existence-Consciousness-Bliss” – or simply, You. My dear Friends, it is not what you do that is important, but in what state you are. In the Now it really doesn’t matter what you do or where you go or how you do or don’t do things, or when - none of that matters. Because when you act from within the Now – from within your Self – all that you do is all that you are, and all that you are is what you are being as consciousness, and all you are being is your Self. And then, just like that, in your constant unfolding in the Now of your Self, you assume once again the true nature of your original human Being – otherwise known as your birthright, formerly lost and now “in time” regained. Namaste.
Sri Humananda © Dwapara 307 (2007) |