Time

I know myself and I find no life nor death in me, only pure being -- not being this or that, but just being. But the moment the mind, drawing on its stock of memories, begins to imagine, it fills the space with objects and time with events. As I do not know even this birth, how can I know past births? It is the mind that, itself in movement, sees everything moving, and having created time, worries about the past and future.

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Q: I shall have to eliminate the ego!

M: The sense 'I am a person in time and space' is the poison. In a way, time itself is the poison. In time all things come to an end and new are born, to be devoured in their turn. Do not identify yourself with time, do not ask anxiously: 'what next, what next?' Step out of time and see it devour the world. Say: 'Well, it is in the nature of time to put an end to everything. Let it be. It does not concern me. I am not combustible, nor do I need to collect fuel'.

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Q: What is the connection between time and the timeless?

M: The timeless knows the time, the time does not know the timeless. All consciousness is in time and to it the timeless appears unconscious. Yet, it is what makes consciousness possible. Light shines in darkness. In light darkness is not visible. Or, you can put it the other way -- in the endless ocean of light, clouds of consciousness appear -- dark and limited, perceivable by contrast. These are mere attempts to express in words something very simple, yet altogether inexpressible.

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In time and space there is eternal flow, birth and death again, advance, retreat, another advance, again retreat -- apparently without a beginning and without end; reality being timeless, changeless, bodyless, mindless awareness is bliss.

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M: It is you who are in movement and not time. Stop moving and time will cease.

Q: What does it mean -- time will cease?

M: Past and future will merge in the eternal now.

Q: But what does it mean in actual experience? How do you know that for you time has ceased?

M: It may mean that past and future do not matter any more. It may also mean that all that happened and will happen becomes an open book to be read at will.

M: All depends on you. It is by your consent that the world exists. Withdraw your belief in its reality and it will dissolve like a dream. Time can bring down mountains; much more youM: All depends on you. It is by your consent that the world exists. Withdraw your belief in its reality and it will dissolve like a dream. Time can bring down mountains; much more you, who are the  timeless source of time. For without memory and expectation there can be no time. , who are the

timeless source of time. For without memory and expectation there can be no time. 

Q: I can imagine a sort of cosmic memory, accessible with some training. But how can the future be known? The unexpected is inevitable.

M: What is unexpected on one level may be certain to happen, when seen from a higher level After all, we are within the limits of the mind.

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M: All depends on you. It is by your consent that the world exists. Withdraw your belief in its reality and it will dissolve like a dream. Time can bring down mountains; much more you, who are the timeless source of time. For without memory and expectation there can be no time.

Bondage of time and space

Visitor: I remember reading somewhere that it is the combination of space and time which is the cause of one’s bondage. I have since been wondering how space and time could possibly result in bondage.

Maharaj: Let us be clear what we are talking about. What do you mean by “bondage”, and bondage for whom? If you are satisfying with this world which you consider as real and the way it has been treating you, where is the bondage for you?

V: Let me acknowledge that to me the world seems real enough, but it is not a fact that I am satisfied with my role in it. I feel deeply convinced there must be very much more to life than just going through it, as most of us do without any definite aim, merely routinely. From this point of view, I think life itself is bondage.

M: When you use the word “I”, what exact image do you have baout yourself? When you were a child, you considered yourself nothing other than a child and were happy enough to play with toys. Later you were a young man, with strength enough in your arms to tackle a couple of elephants, and you thought you could face anything or anyone in this world. You are now in your middle age, a litttle mellower but nontheless enjoying life and its pleasures, and you think you are happy and successful man, blessed with a nice family. At present you have an image about yourself that is quite different from the image you had earlier. Imagine yourself ten years hence and then twenty years later. The image you will then have about yourself will be different from all the earlier ones. Which one of these imagesis the real ‘you’? Have you ever thought about it? Is there any particular identity you can call your very own and which has remained with you thoroughout, unchanged and unchangeable?

V: Now, that you mentioned it, I admit that when I use the word “I”, I have no particular idea about myself, and I agree that whatever ida I have had about myself has been changing over the years.

M: Well, there is something which hsa remained unchanged all these years, while everything else has been changing: the constant sense of presense, the sense that you exist. The sense or feeling I AM has never changed. This is your constant image. You are sitting in front of me. You know it beyound dobut, without any need of confirmation from anyone else. Similarly, you know that you are, that you exist. Tell me, in the absence of what would you be unable to sense your existence?

V: If I were asleep or unconscious, I would not know that I exist.

M: Exactly. Let us proceed further. In the morning, the very first moment you wake up and your consciousness just takes over, do you not feel your conscious presense, your existence, I AM, not as an individual person but presense as such?

V: Yes, that is right. I would say that my individual personality comes into existence when I see my body and other objects around.

M: When you say that you see an object, what really happes is that your senses have reacted to a stimulus from an outide source which is external to your body apparatus. And what your senses have perceived and your mind has interpreted is nothing but appearance in your consciousness. This appearance in consciousness is construed as an event, extended in space and duration. All manifestation depends on a combination of the two closely knit media called space and time. In other words, in the absense of the space-time combination, no manifestation could possibly arise in consciousness. Are you following me?

V: Yes, I understand what you said. But, where do I come in, as an individual, in this process?

M: This is exactly where the rub lies. All “existence” is a continuous process of objectifying. We only exist as one another’s objects and , as such, only in the consciousness that cognizes us. When objectivization ceases, as in deep sleep, the objective universe disappars.

So long as one imagines oneself a separate entity, a person, one cannot see the total picture of the impersonal reality. And the idea of a separate personality is due to the illusion of space and time, which by themselves have no idependent existence, for they are only instruments, mere media to make manifestation congizable.

At any time, only one thought or feeling or perception can be reflected in consciousness, but thoughts, feelings and perceptions move on in succession, giving the illusion of duration. And personality comes into being simply because of memory – identifying the present with the past and projecting it into the future.

Think of yourself as momementory, without a past or future – then where is the personality? Try this and find out for yourself. In memory and anticipation, that is, in the past and the future, there is a clear feeling that there is a mental state under observation, whereas in the actual moment the feeling is a primarily of being awake and present – here and now.

V: I think I understand. I must sit quitely and try to absorb this wholly new way of thinking.

M: Now do you see how space and time, which come along with consciousness and make manifestation perceivable, are the culprits? All you can truly say is: “I AM” (meaning what is, is). The moment there is a thought of “me” as a separate personality, there is what is termed bondage. To realize this is the end of all seeking.

When you apperceive that whatever you think yourself to be is only based on memory and anticipation, your search ends and you stand aloof in full awareness of the fase as false.

– from Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj by Ramesh S. Balsekar