On ‘time’ and the imperfection of words
If you listen to Osho, Sadhguru, Eckhart Tolle, or maybe some prior teachers like Alan Watts, Ram Das or Nisargadatta Maharaj, you often hear of time being an illusion, of the present moment being the only truth.
Upon hearing that, many people might fall into the trap of trying to escape time or the mind. See them as bad because they distract away from where enlightenment happens: here, now, non-descriptive awareness.
Yet, we do have an idea of what time is, and time is required for things to happen (i.e. a process unfolds)… Where’s the confusion?
Time is needed to bake a pie, to learn a language, to work on a business partnership, to grow a relationship, etc/
The mind is also needed to follow a recipe, to memorise words, to analyse and strategise, to communicate, etc.
They are as the soil of the earth, or space, or energy. They are of this world of form, features of events, situation and endeavours. They are necessary.
But problems do arises.
When we use time and the mind, memories, assumptions about the futur, labels to our current experience. Ego attachment comes in when identification to time and mind come into play; we personalise ideas held in our mind and the concept of time.
Basically, the issue arise when we add a layer to reality. When we infuse the world with our personal view of what it is, what it should be, failed to be, could’ve been, etc and then have an emotional reaction to it. We make a problem out of life based on thoughts we have about how our life should be.
So could Alan Watts or Eckhart Tolle recognise that doing the dishes requires time or requires some basic intellect to get through? Of course. And the same could be said about planning a trip or writing a symphony. But in any case, they don’t require an added layer of time and mind added, beyond that basic -that absolutely essential- layer of time and mind. Anything supplementary is the ego and is ultimately dysfunctional (i.e. it doesn’t add to the moment or the result, it in fact subtracts from the moment, the experience, and the performance).
That’s it.
Can you go through life and experience things -even things that require time and mind activity- without adding a supplementary layer of ‘me’, of ‘ego’, of ‘how this affects me’ to it all?
If yes, the weight of life is taken away and things become a lot lighter, a lot harmonious, and lot more cooperative because there’s no resistance to any of it. It just is, here and now.
