Time is a myth. At least many prophets and mystics say so, that there is really no such thing. But I feel an urge to reorient myself to the time we live in.
It is true that what we call time is a myth. We only need hours and clocks to orient ourselves to each other, like “I’ll meet you at five”. “time is a tool created by man to make himself in space relative to each other.” Take any of the mystics that philosophize about time realty and give a meal to prepare and a baby to feed and time becomes very real, at least because you may lack it. However, I feel a different type of time to write about. The kind without worry of fret as to the next thing. The kind without haste or stress about deadlines and struggle.
If I don’t pay attention, my day can become a bundle of worry over time. In the morning I will stress and fret over having a meal quickly and begin to get some things done by a certain hour and if I am not I will feel frustrated. If I see during a chore that I will not have enough time go get to another chore I was planning to do, again, my thoughts are consumed with angst and stress. I don’t like to live like that, always watching the clock and thinking and worrying about the next thing. Always trying to drive fast or do two or three things at once.
I prefer to live in no time. I don’t know the origins of the philosophy, maybe zen but who cares. When you mow the grass, worry about mowing the grass. When I mop the floor, just mop the floor. There is no next thing. Mowing the grass is all there is. Mopping the floor is all there is. This is the life. This is a way to touch and walk in eternity each moment. In one way living present in each moment, fully livicated to that moment. In another way fully committed to the task or situation at hand that that is all you are. I hear more this way. I see more this way. We are more aware of life this way.
A teacher once spoke of this type of teaching. As a young boy he saw his teacher sitting on the ground paying rapt attention to the opening of a flower. He though he would snap him out of his trance and get his teacher to do something more fun. As the boy approached he asked, “watcha doing?”. without taking his eyes off the flower, the teacher said “all I am is now”.
While the teacher certainly lived without diapers to change or a job to be on time for, he lives in a different reality where time is only now to now to now. There is little concern for the then or the when. That is eternity, to live in the mind of now, to now, to now.
I feel no worry in this kind of time. I preform a task and there is no next thing until that task is completed (or interrupted by another). And, if you can hold onto yourself within this time too, I learn to be fully myself in each moment. This is the life.
