NEW INSIGHTS – WISDOM FROM THE EAST
TIME MANAGEMENT
POST 6
PRESENT
What is PRESENT?
PRESENT is the smallest fraction of the timeline. The present is a single moment on the infinite Timeline. It is not proposed to define moment other than saying PRESENT = THIS MOMENT = PRESENT. We are always in the present moment.
THE TIME LINE TRAIN :
You cannot go back and forth on the timeline. Like in many other things, You have no such choice. Further, you are getting tossed continuously from THIS MOMENT, to the next moment on the uni-directional time line, without any of your choice or volition. Time line is the base, which is moving constantly, beneath your feet; beneath your life. Every moment is presented to you – with some choices and some compulsions for you. You are the witness for many things and you are the actor for some things, in each moment present before you.
In this journey of the time line, you are always at the Present Moment. You are not the traveler. Specifically, You are not ALLOWED to travel either into the PAST or into the FUTURE.
This is comparable to a train journey. The train is moving; not you. YOU are not the traveler. The train is. You are comfortably at Rest but inside the train. Yet, the train movement itself results in you being taken to various places. Within the train, you can move about, in a limited way.
LIFE TRAIN :
As in the case of train Journey, when the timeline train is moving, you too are BEING MOVED IN IT, WITHOUT YOUR CHOICE – (a) starting from the sperm-egg state to the embryo state, (b) from there to the child state, (c) from there to the boy/girlhood state, (d) from there to the youth state, (e) from there to the adult state, (e) from there to the middle aged state, (f) from there to the old age state, (g) from there to the state of death and (h) from there to the disintegration into the five universal elements. Though this is the normal progression, we can drop dead and drop out of life at any stage and cut short the cycle. This last thing can possibly be our choice, which we will examine later.
Within this timeline train and within this birth to death Journey, You are performing so many actions incessantly. You are undergoing changes every moment. Your surroundings – starting from you to the end of the universe – is also undergoing changes every moment.
Action, action, everywhere action; and every where change. Change in every moment. This is the Universe. This is YOU.
You, or the world, cannot halt even for one moment. The journey is always on.
It is on this shifting base, that you plan what you call as TIME MANAGEMENT and LIFE MANAGEMENT. You plan what you can influence by your volition.
So, What can be the definition of PRESENT?
PRESENT = ACTION = CHANGE
Our time is tied to our clocks and to our concept of days, nights, years etc which is based on sun-moon-earth relative movements. If we forget these relative time concepts, in the absolute world, there is no time; there is only action and change.
OUR GOALS:
Within this life, what can be our Goals? There are many things in life which are clearly beyond our volition and choice. In their respect, your goals have to be to accept them in conditionally. As Bhagavad Gita says, all that is happening is good; all that has happened is good ; and all that is going to happen also is good.
There are many things in which you do enjoy a huge choice. Your goals have to be there.
The Law of the universe is – if you strive to change the things that are within your choice, things which are beyond your choice change, in consonance with your effort.
What is your GOAL in your life? Aristotle named happiness as the primary goal of life. Let us assume that this be so. It looks almost obvious. Whatever gives you happiness – is your goal in life. But then, do you know what gives you happiness?
This is the million dollar question in life?
(1) You want a healthy body. Without a healthy body, it is very difficult to be happy. But, for this to happen, you must eat balanced diet, do appropriate exercises, keep off from excessive stress, tension, worries etc, keep your self relaxed, build your immunity..and.. do all those things which ensure a healthy body.
You will readily agree with all these things. But, just look it carefully. You really do not know any thing of what is happening at this moment, in all your internal organs beneath the outermost layer of your skin. Your heart is beating; your lungs are pumping air in and out; your digestive system is furiously busy in converting food into different things; your circulatory system is busy; your excretory system is busy; so many other systems are busy; but, you have absolutely no knowledge of all of all these things and absolutely no control.
But, you know one thing. If you eat well; exercise well; keep relaxed.., all of your internal systems will function well. You are given this user level knowledge, to manipulate the external potentials. You are not given the knowledge or authority to directly interfere with the internal systems. So, fix your user level goals – and you will be happy. This is what we meant when we said earlier - if you strive to change the things that are within your choice, things which are beyond your choice change, in consonance with your effort.
(2) You want friends – because Friends can make you happy.
This you know; but, for this to happen, you must become a good friend of those people. Your goal is not in your hands. But, this effort to be a good friend of others is in your hands; in your volition. So, actually, wanting friends is not the goal. Being a friend is the real goal.
(3) You want people to love you. Then you can be happy. But, for this to happen, you must first love people. So, your GOAL must be to love people, unconditionally, unreservedly.
(4) You want to be intelligent; therefore, learn intelligent things. Use them daily. Your brain assimilates these intelligent things. Your brain is not under your direct control. The outside things it wants are.
(5) By manipulating the externalities and working on them, you create your internalities.
(6) But most of the time, we fix goals which lead us towards the opposite of our main goal of happiness. We want HAPPINESS. No one in his right senses, wants to be UNHAPPY. But, we do many things which directly result in unhappiness. We fix goals which are antithetical to the HAPPINESS GOAL – though, it may not look like that at the first instance.
(7) Once a great warrior king was passing through a forest path along with his mighty army, after conquering one kingdom and in search of another kingdom to conquer. Deep in the forest, he saw a beggar-like person, sitting under a tree. This person wasn’t a beggar, but a great yogi; a sage. The warrior king looked at him and was perplexed at the great joy reflected in his face and in his entire being.
(8) The king got down, went to him and asked him the cause of his great joy. The king told him – I am an emperor. I have so many kingdoms under my control. I have so much money and all treasures. I have so many servants. I have so many comforts; so much of physical health and strength. I have everything that a man can possibly have. So, I have many reasons to be happy. But, you have nothing at all. What is the cause of your great joy?
(9) The begger-sage replied – O mighty Emperor. I have a big stone with me. Just keep your hands straight before me. I will place this stone in your hands and tell you the cause of my great joy.
(10) The emperor stretched his hands. The beggar-sage placed a big stone in the outstretched hands of the emperor and asked him to hold it for some time. The emperor held it for some time and asked, tell me the cause of your joy. The sage said – please hold the stone for some more time. This was repeated a few times. The emperor could not hold the stone beyond a few minutes and said – well, I will now place the stone back on earth. After putting down the stone, he heaved a sigh of relief and said – o beggar, tell me the source of your joy.
(11) The beggar asked – Emperor, were you happier when you were holding the stone or on leaving the stone? The emperor agreed that he was happier after leaving the stone. The begger-sage said – I have left all stones. Now, I don’t hold any stone, beyond the absolute minimum. Therefore I am in great joy. You are not in such joy, because, you are holding too many stones in your hands, for too long.
(12) We will continue the discussion on THE PRESENT, the greatest present in the hands of all of us, in the next post.
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