Is Time on Our Side?

Post 11: OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH TIME

“We know what we are, not what we may become.” William Shakespeare.

            People have always had a vitriolic and vituperative relationship with time. Let’s look at how our battle with time makes us unhappy and consider how we can look at time a different way.

 In one way or another, we’re almost always thinking about time. We’re always thinking about what we have to do later today and what our schedule is for tomorrow. We’re always rushing and worrying about being on time. Our minds wander through time. This is called Not-Being-In-The-Moment.

            The truth is that most of our problems exist in the past or the future. We worry about something that may happen in the future. We feel guilt or anger or sadness about something that has happened in the past. And while it’s true that we do have bad experiences, that’s not what happens most of the time. We just dwell on those moments far too much.  The Cherokee say “Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.” Similarly, the Pawnee believe, “What is past and cannot be prevented should not be grieved for.”

            We tend to look at time negatively, like an enemy. We talk about “the race against time”. We describe time as if it were something we’re short of, as in “We’re out of time”, “There’s not enough time”, “I wish I had more time” or “Running out of time.” Or sometimes we have “too much time” and then we have to “kill time”. Time seems to always be against us. Why do we see it that way?

            We should live in the present and find our eternity in the moment. We live in a time where growing financial demands and expectations cause us to look to the future more dreadfully. To the presentation we have to give tomorrow; to the money we hope to save for retirement; to the dollar tomorrow might bring. We’re dragged kicking and screaming out of the present. We don’t take the time to really savor the NOW. To relax, reflect and feel connected to ourselves.

              “Man partly is and partly hopes to be” as Shakespeare said. Taking action now is the only way to be sure that we’ll get where we’re going. And we can’t let thoughts of the past deter us from our future. It’s the past that leads to doubt and lack of confidence. The past can hold us back. We can’t change the past. “What’s beyond help should be beyond grief.”  The past is gone but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called ‘the Present’.

 We need to start our Eternity in the Present moment. What we are and what we will be depends on the choices we make now and the faith we have in our ability to ascend and create a new world for ourselves and for everyone else. Our faith may be a small candle flame but it lights its way through the darkness and ultimately into the light. A flame always reaches upward. Even a tiny flame aspires to rise to new heights.   We all have the capacity to be better than we are if we deepen our faith every day. So what are we prepared to do today?

One Nichiren Buddhist story speaks of the Lion King (Not the Disney one) who took three steps and paused before striking. Between the hunt and the kill, there was a moment when the lion was in-the-moment, pausing to reflect on the experience before rushing to the conclusion. The lion wasn’t thinking about what he had to do tomorrow.  His mind was totally in the moment.

 Why can’t we savor the moment like the Lion King did? Why do we live in the past or the future? Why are we all too willing to be seduced away from our rightful and essential need to be ourselves in the moment? Is it possible to find happiness between ‘tick’ and ‘tock’? Between the bad memories of ‘tick’ or the dread of ‘tock’. How many hours do we spend reliving bad experiences from yesterday or dreading the years ahead, despite the fact that we—all of us—have the instinctive knowledge that there is a better way. A way of greater sanity.

Two things that continually rob us of our happiness are negative thoughts of the past and future. Fear is only a prediction and anger is only a memory. “The greatest blow the enemy of the human soul can strike is to do fury honor.” We can learn from the past and we can plan for the future but we must live in the present.

            Some people work so hard to become successful but never take the time to enjoy the money that they struggled so many hours to earn. And what happens to the people who lose their money before they had a chance to savor having it? Too many people focus on getting something they don’t have but take for granted what they have now. We all take the present for granted even though it’s all we have.

            Shakyamuni Buddha was a wise man, possessed of a clarity that most of us lack. He taught people how to come to terms with the conditions they live in. He advised people to look deep within themselves and acknowledge the way in which their own actions hurt them. He knew that disregarding the precious moments that make up our lives, only diminishes us.

            Buddha said “Life is ever changing, moment to moment. The only constant is change”. So if the world is constantly in flux, hurtling towards unpredictable possibilities, and since the past is irrevocably gone, then all we have for certain is NOW! So why not cherish what we have? Why not live in the moment?

  It’s been said that the universe gives you what you need. Buddha might have said that we have all the time we need. We just need to learn to use it better and appreciate it more. Don’t wish it away or take it for granted. Enjoy here and enjoy now.

            A great quote from Hamlet is “I could be bound in a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space.” Well, we’re all bound by the constraints of time but if we learn to live in the moments, instead of the years; then we can come one step closer to that Buddha nature that lives between ‘Tick’ and ‘Tock’.