A Question of When?

We all go about everyday as if we were running after an insurmountable goal or running from a horrendous monster.  Always in a hurry to do this or finish that, after finishing something, there's always something else over the horizon to accomplish.  And in this mad rush, we think that we are always out of time.


The hours in a day are never enough, we would utter things like - if only I had more time I would have been able to do a better job or I should start now at that project so that I have a lot of time to tweak it for it to be perfect!  Or if I had the luxury of time, I would been able to tell my loved one how important they are to me, that or wishing against all hope that the good times would never stop.


But what is time?   Does it even exist?


Time is how the mind organizes events, how it manages to understand the chronology of things happening, it is a way of cataloging events so it keeps them in order.  It is the way the mind creates a memory but with a story for some added kick, it loves doing that.  The mind creates time for easy access to stored data.  Time is something we all think we do not have much of.  We have time tables to do things, schedules of when do them and anniversaries, birthdays and what not to commemorate time.  A child has little no understanding of time, all the child knows is that things are happening, the same goes for the elderly, in the twilight of their lives, time has little to no importance.


When did we start having this concept of time?


When the individual begins to be immersed in society, then the value of time is added.  Our jobs, school, commutes are reliant on time for everything to flow.  There would be chaos in society without it, imagine people doing things in their job whenever they want, you'd be looking for new employment by the end of the day.


Where does time happen?


Obviously in the mind.  It was created by the mind hence will happen there.  We have used time as a currency of sorts, giving it when someone else gives it to us.  The concept of time is good for tasks and worldly matters, keeps things in order, just how the mind likes everything.


How does it work?


We've broken this down to a science from an hour to a minute to a second.  And all throughout history we have made time telling devices to help us out, from sun dials to calendars to seasons to periods - very much like a memory process.


But when we look at it simply - when was yesterday?  Did it happen?  Do we have proof of it occurring?  And tomorrow?  Will it happen?  Wait, isn't everything happening now?!  Even thinking about yesterday and tomorrow is happening now.  Can it be said that there is no time but now?


We live in a perpetual state of now, there is no past or future, everything happens in the present.  Even as you think about the past and the future, you are thinking about them right now.  Trying to remember what you did yesterday? You're thinking about that right now too.  Funny and shocking isn't it?  No matter how hard we try, we can only live now, there is no way around it.  Quick, think of an experience of not being here and now?  Yep it's impossible.

There is no other way, we are always here and now.  When you try to access yesterday, we start having a memory and when you think of the to do's tomorrow - that's just a plan.  And both of them are done in the now and nowhere else.  You've probably heard about people who were so engrossed with what they are doing that they loose time.  Mind forgets time for a bit and there is full immersion in the now, and at that moment - you are living.

But this is not a free pass to do things and not think about their consequences, oh no, not how things work.  What you do know greatly affects what happens next, free will, choices that we make has a hand in the next sequence of happenings.  Think of it as a program, once executed, it will happen till it is done.


Remember to be here and now, because there is no other way.  So don't complicate things and just engage in the present.  Don't fly off to tomorrow nor get lost in yesterday, those are just thoughts and memories that are happening now.  They are always happening now.  The thing about getting lost in yesterday and flying off to tomorrow is that after awhile, suffering comes.  How and why you ask? we start thinking about things not happening how they did before, this is us expecting.  Then with future thoughts, we have anxiety of what ifs - what if it doesn't happen the way I want it to? What if something goes terribly wrong? So better stay here, in the now.  Breathe in and out, this will anchor you here.  This could be the start of meditation even, staying here by focusing on the breath.  This will help you to relax, detach and let go.  Just experience, there is no good or bad, everything is just happening.