Occasionally, if you’re paying attention, you’ll come across people that seem to have an effect on the flow of time. Time is a rare commodity or so we think, so we relate to it and so it occurs. Ironically, you have all the time you’ll ever need. Spending some time with one of these people who “shift time” is an excellent way to significantly impact your life and allow you to experience the true nature of time. If you’re paying attention.
I’ve had the opportunity over the past three weeks to take some vacation from work and spend my days with one of these people. Being with him has allowed me to experience a flow of time that is both slower than what I’m used to in normal day to day life and makes the world outside and its passing of time seem much faster. The days have flown by while at the same time I’ve found myself laboring to slow down, slow down my mind, slow down my desire to Do and just Be in time with this master of being. At the same time, I can hardly believe that three weeks have gone by in the outside world from my view here inside this sanctuary.
The background image that I currently have plastered on my phone to snap me back to reality is a quote attributed to Buddha. The quote is, “The trouble is, you think you have time”. Quotes are useless in and of themselves. You have to live the quote to experience it’s wisdom and power. The full picture of this one in particular, like the visual image of the old woman/young woman, is easy to miss. Easy to get caught up in the idea that the trouble is, you think you have time to do those things you’d rather put off until tomorrow. Make that bucket list, get to it, what are you waiting for. Certainly that is a valid interpretation.
After spending a few weeks with the Master, the time shifter, what I see is that the trouble is, I think I have time. <–Period. It’s so easy to get caught up in the mind made construct of time. I have a past, a present, a future and if I create this magnificent vision of “future” and live into it I can drastically alter my present and the way it occurs for me. Or, I have this past, present and future and the reason my present looks the way it does is that I know I’ve incorrectly put my past in my future, so everything that I can hope to do will most likely turn out very much like it has in the past.
Time-shifter disagrees. He has no past. He has no future. And what of his present? He is present certainly. But he doesn’t have a present either. He doesn’t have to “get himself” into the present. He is the present. It alters who I am and my experience of time. It radically points out when I’m somewhere else, not present. It cracks me across the back with his swift stick when I’m somewhere other than here, now.
Sometime soon, in his future that I can speak about, he will gain that dual edged sword of language. He will someday soon begin to relate to himself as an entity I, separate from me, separate from the world, separate from time and he will cease to be Time. He will become concerned with me, and mine, and I. He will believe that you are distinct from he. Time-shifter will become ordinary.
With conversation, reflection, and time spent with other time-shifters he may regain what has been lost. Don’t be confused that this occurring of being a time-shifter is relegated only to those with no language. I’ve met some of these “enlightened” ones, consistently being. I’ve also met some of these “enlightened” ones (we all are, aren’t we?) who shift time consistently doing. You’ll notice these time-shifters as those who leave you “less than whole”, incomplete, causing you stress between what “should be” and “what is”. This space between being and doing is what we seek when we look for balance.
Master has a complete support system in place for himself that allows for his wordly survival concerns to be taken care of. Many of the other enlightened ones do as well. This allows them to exist in a space of being, exist outside of time really. When I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m tired, I sleep. When I cry, I cry.
When I have to poop, I poop. This is where Truth/Love/Aletheia is experienced – out of Time, as Being Time.
Me and the Teacher
With Love,
Ed