Saturday 9 November 2013

Time and Timelessness

Our existence in relation to the concept of Time

The concept of time is a paradox. Time and Timelessness are two sides of the same coin.

When one is time-oriented, if observed carefully, one sees that there is actually no present moment. The NOW does not really exist. How? Let's observe:
There are only past and future as reference points concerning time. The NOW (the present) is the future of the past as well as it also remains the past of the future. The NOW is ever-flowing. For example, if you time yourself to feel and proclaim 'NOW' at the 10th second from the current time - even if you feel and experience the state of NOW, at the exact 10th second, the mili-seconds would have already passed away and the NOW remains a feeling based on experience of the 'Now'. It is like sand slipping away from under your feet at a beach by the action of receding waters. The grains of sand in this scenario can be compared to moments in time.

The present is simply the future waiting to be experienced. Present is borrowed from the future.

On the other hand, timelessness is an experience of ceasing to have all reference points. Rather than engaging the mind on the duality of Past and Future, it is simply freed - just let open. This is what the famous philosopher Krishnamurti termed as 'choiceless awareness'. It is akin to a dam which contains the same water on either sides - imagine one side is called Past and the other side is called Future! Once the mind is opened, the past and the future merge and become one entity - TIMELESSNESS. Yet this timelessness is the very source of the illusion - the separation based concept of TIME. Like the dam, the mind restricts energy (due to splitting existence based on the space-time concept, of which time is divided into past/future/present).

When there is no resistance, energy resumes its natural state of flowing continuously. It is a feeling of being in the NOW but without the time's reference points of past and future. In the peak of that experience of being in the present, the NOW gradually fades away... ultimately unravelling TIMELESSNESS.


THIS TIMELESSNESS IS A NEUTRAL STATE -- BEYOND THE DUALITY OF LOVE AND FEAR, PEACE AND CONFLICT, JOY AND SADNESS. It is only in associating with the illusory concept of TIME that these dualities affect our nature of existence.

***