In the moment

What is time? There are two conditions that must be fulfilled if we want to define time. One is form, the other is movement. According to modern physics a third condition is gravitation but this is nothing which should bother us in everyday life.

Time is a measurement of how different forms are moving in relation to each other. The definition of time is historically based on the rotation of our planet around its own axis and in relation to the sun. One rotation constitutes one day. But Earth also moves in a wide circle around the sun and one lap in this circle is called a year. If we leave advanced quantum physics aside we can understand logically that it is not possible to measure time in an absolute empty space without any kinds of form which  can move in relation to each other. As long, of course, as we not have brought with us our own forms which move in relation to each other, for example a clock with its hands. But without this we would not be able to measure time in a total void. Because time hasn’t just stopped there. It does not exist.

Timelessness is also called eternity. But we usually assume that timelessness is not compatible with our lives as human beings. So, we very often experience that we are the slaves of time. This makes it increasingly difficult for us in a culture where the order of time, and our adaption to this, almost have reached cult status. We say that we don’t have time. And this is of course true in a way. Life is time limited. The days of life go fast and we do not have time for everything we wish to do. We want to achieve so much, often because we feel that we should or must. And we try to believe that speed, movement and direction always is possible to adapt to, or has to be adapted to the world around us. But reality teaches us that this is very often not possible. Such a way to understand time seems to be based on seeing it as a factor which is exclusively linked to action and result. We perceive time as an objective reality outside ourselves to which we must conform.

There are other ways to understand time. We can also choose to see it as an ”inside experience”. Science may understand time as a physical and mathematical concept, but for us as conscious beings can time also be a private experience which can pass slowly, fast, or not at all. The mental ”feeling” of time can be very different from what the wristwatch says. This subjective experience is well known to all of us. There are times when time passes too fast and we did not understand where it went. But situations where minutes feel infinitely long are not uncommon either. And many can certainly recall a moment when time seemed to have stopped. In such a moment we are completely filled with our own inner experience and the rest of the world does no longer exists for us. Moment and eternity have then become one and the same.

Eternity is often defined as time without an end. But time without an end is still time. Eternity can also be defined as reality without time. So, experience of timelessness in the moment can provide us with a touch of eternity.

To understand this outside and inside perspective on time is as important as to understand the difference between being a person and describing a person. As long as we, or others, try to shape us only after external descriptions we will fail to know ourselves. But everyone of us is a unique being with its own set of biologically inherited properties, learned abilities and own experiences. So we must get to know ourselves in order to grow mentally. This work can only be done in the present. The past is definitely gone and the future has not yet arrived. True, emotions and thoughts can dwell in the past or in the future. But the body can’t exist anywhere else but in this moment. And when this moment is gone the body lives on in the next moment, and the next, and the next … Only in the existing moment can we understand something about ourselves and this world where we live. And it is only in this moment that we consciously can change anything, in our minds and in the world.

It is often said that if we want to find happiness it’s in the moment we can see those rays of light that can be found in all darkness. Leonard Cohen sings ”there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”. One can of course think that this is a small consolation when the mind is focused on the sorrows, worries and difficulties of everyday life. But right here it is useful to learn that it is possible to create moments of stillness in the storm, moments of rest and peace, and come to greater clarity about ones life situation. We do not always have to accept all those external and internal conditions that determine our current life. We can to some extent affect our environment. And we can also change our reactions to it. Everyone can do this. This is a job that requires commitment and perseverance. We have to start it within us and mostly do it within us. But the effort is well worth the reward that awaits. And there will be a reward. A clearer overview, a more distinctly experienced self-worth, a more harmonic approach to what is happening, less overwhelming negative emotions, all these are things that everyone appreciates. The road towards this is the road to wisdom and it starts with sharpening our awareness of everything the moment contains. This means to notice with awareness and emotional distance all that which sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste are telling me right now. It means to perceive what my body is telling me right now, to see my thoughts and emotions right now and how I feel about my life energy right now.

Awareness in the moment is the key to understanding myself and my life. If we can achieve greater awareness we also will have a greater opportunity to understand and correct that which creates imbalance, within ourselves and in this small part of the universe where we exist for the moment.