Due to the influences of our social environment people have forgotten the true essence of time. As far back as I can remember the concept of time was directly related to clock time or dates on a piece of paper called a calendar. In this human made understanding it appears that time is separated into units next to each other. This way of dividing time is helpful in many ways as we plan our daily activities, strategize our future involvements, and synchronize international efforts. But, this is not real time, this is imaginary time.
The ways of the world tell us that there is always something that we are missing, something that we need, and there is never enough time. In this way time becomes our elusive enemy, something that we continue to reach for that is always beyond our grasp. People talk about “beating the clock” and “running out of time”. There is an ancient Greek mythological tale involving Tantalos, King of Phrygia, who in the afterlife was condemned to suffer for an eternity standing in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree. Each time he would reach for the fruit the branches would rise; each time he bent down to drink the water the water would recede, the necessities of human existence always beyond his grasp.
Is this the life that we, as a human race of people have accepted to define us? Do we really believe that there is never enough money, never enough possessions, never enough food, never enough body numbing chemicals, never enough time to consume the things the world tells us are important? Is this who we are? Have we forgotten that we get to choose what we consider precious? This continual wanting that is the way of the world can only lead to dissatisfaction because the resources of the planet, like the years of our lives, are always limited.
I have studied the lives of those who people hold up as icons of fortune, humans who are masters of the economic paradigm of Capitalism. When I look in their eyes as I view them on newsreels and documentary presentations, they look so hungry, so lost. They look as though they have become infected with a disease that causes them to create and live in a hell that is similar to the story of Tantalus. Through their eyes I see their hearts and their hearts are filled with anxiety, their minds filled with stress, their bodies riddled from the weight of wanting. They live in an illusion that has been fed to them by an unsatisfied world, a world that tells them massive amounts of money, possessions, and political influence, will allow them control over something in their outer environment. Are they in control of themselves? People spend years of their lives on this illusion only to become exhausted, depressed, and in physical shambles. “Where has the time gone?” I hear people say.
To live in this sense of time with no understanding of real time you can find yourself making an enemy of time and an enemy of life. You become like a rigid rock that is continually being grounded into dust by life. The sacred writings within the Abrahamic traditions read, “For you are dust and to dust you shall return.”1 These are powerful words from the wise ones of antiquity that help us understand the nature of our impermanence. However, people seem to have misinterpreted the words. Life is not supposed to grind you into dust. It will if you let it.
During the meditative process clock time disappears and the human bodymind becomes reacquainted with real time. In meditation each second becomes pregnant with infinity and time becomes always now, no past or future, but the infinite and eternal now. I usually set a timer at 15 or 30 minutes when I meditate. I am often impressed when the timer goes off that it seems as though I have been away from the mental “rat race” for hours or in some cases seconds.
During this practice, thoughts about what needs to be done in the hustle and bustle of your day are no longer necessary and no longer present, freeing your whole being to be truly current in the Spirit of real time. In this place of peace that is in you, you exercise the vessel that you are as a temple of this Spirit. You have allotted real time for a divine reunion with the Spirit of life. In these moments your mind is free to explore the depths of your being unhindered by clock time.
- Gen. 3:19 NAB
Guy Schell © 2018
