On Time
published: July 10th, 2008
On Time
image: pingnews.com
I have always thought that my time was limited. Limited by external factors over which I had no control. I understand now that my time is limited by internal factors over which I do have control. Perception is everything.
Consider the view that time is linear. It is how most of us think of it. A line that travels, and along which we travel, perhaps like being on a train. Another way to think of it is that time is like a stream or a river, the current is the direction it follows, where it has come from is the past and where it is going to is the future. Where it is now is the present.
Let’s expand that idea a little. We have a linear, directional perception of time as a three vectored thing, the past, the present and the future. This perception relies upon the idea of time as having a constant speed and direction, as in it will always be moving forward and it will maintain a regular speed. We go along with it as if we were floating in the current, perhaps as a leaf or a twig might float along in a stream or a river.
Where does a river lead to? All rivers lead to the sea. They merge back into the ocean from which they originated via the process of precipitation. The point at which a river enters the sea is an estuary.
Time is more accurately thought of in this way, that it is like an estuary rather than a stream. An estuary is a combination of currents, directions, eddys, vortices, whirlpools, sudden shifts and rapid changes. So there are temporal variations, there are alternative structures in the fabric or flow of time. Even to the extent that there will be points or zones where it appears to move backwards. There will be places where it seems to alternate its speed and even change direction.
The real leap in cognizance is your understanding that you can be where you want to be within that. Consider your own mind as being an intermediary between the different strata of existence that we are a part of. Your perception is a mediator between the various states that it is possible for it to occupy. It is limited by your beliefs which are essentially a distillation of what you have been told.
Remember the extraordinary young gymnast Olga Korbut who dazzled the world in the Munich Olympics of 1972. She pushed her craft to such an extent that many within the gymnastics world thought that the apex of gymnastics had been reached and there was nowhere left for it to go, perfection had been accomplished. Fourteen year old Nadia Comanici at the following Olympics in Montreal achieved an unprecedented six perfect ten scores. She was the product of a training and coaching system that simply did not tell the gymnasts the things they were being asked to do were unheard of.
These were children and so the luggage of later life did not hamper them. They simply wanted to please their mentors. By which process they became an unstoppable force in the world of gymnastics, achieving things that had been hitherto thought impossible.
Your mind is the same. It is limited by its beliefs of what is possible or not based upon very conservative thinking. The way that you think is not designed to allow you to become emancipated or illumined, it is essentially a means of surviving adequately in the modern world. That is what usually makes the biggest noise. The desire to conform, not in a pejorative sense, to the prevailing conditions is the most acute pressure source we as social entities find ourselves in the wash of.
It’s a little like having the most extraordinary supercar, being sat at the wheel with all the controls at your fingertips ready to respond to your instructions but being stuck in a traffic jam. That’s how it is for your mind, it is restricted and hampered by the situations it finds itself in.
Like the perception of time as a simple linear construct, we understand most aspects of our lives in a very faltering way. Like Nadia Comaneci it is about believing that you are capable of producing giant leaps instead of tiny shuffling steps.