Today, after meditation as I was labeling the mp3, I realized that this whole month the meditations have been itemized as “04 …” rather than 05 for May. I pondered time, timelessness, the contrivances of time, the made-up features and reality of time, how human relationship to time has changed and is changing and settled into ease -the ease of here, present, awakened. The truth is that no label is true or even factually, functionally correct. Labels are projections, fabrications, and temporary identifications that support human beings’ and animals’ continued projections and fabrications and the proof is our lives; the current world situation being a perfect example. Those who cling to old labels and desires, long-lived projections of other thus protectionism, self thus greed, keep, have, of humanity being in a heyday instead of looking around and questioning that are not present nor willing to be here now. To be present is to be present -to the good, the bad and the ugly, to the amazing and subtle and potential, to what has not worked, is not working, will never factually benefit others (thus work), and that which does, is, can, and would if lived and implemented.
Time and timelessness exist together. While much (but not all) of the world marks months or days, hours, minutes, or seconds, each moment is timeless. What anyone does with the timelessness, the newness, the nowness, the never beforeness of each moment is our choice; but it is a fresh choice, a new choice, a choice that seems a repeat of of before but is not. You have changed from a moment before, the Earth has, and reality has. This is factually and metaphysically true. Of every moment, St. Francis sang, “Where there is hate, let me sow love.” Patanjali said, “Yama is irrespective of race, place, time, or emergency.” Yama is harmlessness, truthfulness, pacification of one’s desires and emotions through understanding and taming them, and dedication to the highest good, highest essence, and highest practice of life. Padmasambhava instructed that in each moment we are to “ascend with the conduct while descending with the view.” The view is emptiness, interconnected interdependence, and the view of truths such as that all things are impermanent thus that change is the constant, the whimsical and imputed coloration of emotions and their fleeting nature, etc.
What is it to be present? Here, present, awakened.
Let’s meditate.
