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christinev
Australia
5 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 12 2012 : 08:08:35 AM
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hi :)
my question is regarding "time" and it's illusionary element. i'm aware that this may be posed because it is time for me to more deeply know the truth, but i also feel something i can not ignore. i have been feeling a louder and louder sensation that my ancestors are pressing in around me, the women, specifically, asking me to move forward in ways i can only feel, not completely express.
i feel as if time is running out, as if a window is closing.
on one hand, i see we have all the time in existence available to us.
on the other, i feel an energetic "pressure" i can't really express, i just know it's real.
so in the same way, i see one road as an opportunity for continued self examination and dissolving of beliefs and conditions. on the other, an expansion which makes no logical sense but feels alive with truth and silence. and yet, either path 'should' contain both aspects, shouldn't it?
so i suppose my questions are:
- IS time running out?
and
- when does spiritual growth in the form of mirroring and self inquiry with a mate come to an end?
we are connected and alone, why does it matter who we're with? |
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CarsonZi
Canada
3189 Posts |
Posted - Mar 12 2012 : 12:25:28 PM
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Hi Christine, nice to see you on the forums 
Here's how I see it.
There is only one road, and you are on it. And that road has as much opportunity for self examination, expansion and discovery as you want. Ultimately all limitations are self imposed (in my opinion).
quote:
Is time running out?
My answer would be both yes and no... it would all depend on where (what perspective) you are asking the question from. Physically, yes, time is running out. Ultimately, no, time only exists in the mind.
quote:
When does spiritual growth in the form of mirroring and self inquiry with a mate come to an end?
When it does... and not a second earlier or later.
I know that my answers here are ambiguous and likely of little help, but I think the answers to these kinds of questions have to come from within, and are often wordless.
Anyway, great to see you here, hope you and the family are enjoying sunny Australia. 
Love!
Carson 
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karl
United Kingdom
1812 Posts |
Posted - Mar 12 2012 : 12:51:17 PM
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I would have a similar reply:
Time is an illusion we are told, even Einstein said that.
However, it's only a convenient belief unless you have direct knowledge. It's an assumption which is alien to our experience. As we experience living, we find that time does indeed exist, again, but it's relative. Without a sense of this created time our lives would be chaotic. From early history we have sought a way to predict night, day and the seasons. Time is integral to human experience even if it isn't real.
In this sense time does indeed run out. It's the tool we have to measure our natural life span.
Is this a concern?
No it isn't, unless you think it is. See, how that's a subtle twist? It doesn't matter if you are eternal if you have no knowledge of being eternal. Then, for you, time is running out. That thought is the cause of suffering. No amount of clever words or philosophies will convince you otherwise.
Does that mean you should suddenly get this knowledge?
No. You are where you are, when you are and how you are. To imagine you should be different causes suffering. Coming to understand this takes time, concentrating on practises is more important than worrying about the time. Time will pass regardless of your fretting and worrying. The important thing is to do the practices without any sense of gain or change.
You are already, there is no becoming, but that's far easier to say than to know. For most of us it is a myth and not real life experience. So we practice.
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gatito
United Kingdom
179 Posts |
Posted - Mar 12 2012 : 9:28:42 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by christinev
- IS time running out?
Hi christinev
There are two possible answers to this: -
If you believe that time (and "christinev") are "real" - then, of course, time is running out for you.
However, if you inquire more deeply into the reality of the existence of time, you might come to see clearly that not only is time illusory but that "christinev" is also illusory. Then the question has no answer as it is based on a false premise (i.e. that time exists and therefore can run out). In other words, the question woulds be akin to asking whether the water seen in a mirage would quench your thirst.
You do need to be careful that you don't just adopt that as a belief system though.
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maheswari
Lebanon
2520 Posts |
Posted - Mar 13 2012 : 02:49:08 AM
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very well said gatito!...in oder to avoid the pitfall of turning this into a new belief too,one should keep on practicing especially DM and SB to deepen the inner silence and merge it with ecstasy....
all the best eveybody |
Edited by - maheswari on Mar 13 2012 02:51:36 AM |
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BuddhiHermit
United Kingdom
84 Posts |
Posted - Mar 13 2012 : 09:06:20 AM
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Hi Christine,
This is my take:
I have felt this way as well in the past.
At the time, my Spirit was pushing me to enter the stream of growth and development, which I followed.
The window IS closing, and it will be to your advantage to act in the manner prompted, without yet worrying why.
Life proceeds in cycles, and you are perceiving a cycle leading to greater freedom.
The rest is just habitual thinking and doubting, starting to obscure the message - hence the need to act now.
The path does contain both aspects, and only by entering the expansion will you see how.
Without entering the expansion, you will not see the truth of it.
Namaste |
Edited by - BuddhiHermit on Mar 13 2012 09:11:37 AM |
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gatito
United Kingdom
179 Posts |
Posted - Mar 13 2012 : 1:41:20 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by maheswari
...in oder to avoid the pitfall of turning this into a new belief too,one should keep on practicing especially DM and SB..........
I'm not sure that I'd agree with that myself. |
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maheswari
Lebanon
2520 Posts |
Posted - Mar 13 2012 : 2:35:33 PM
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quote:
I'm not sure that I'd agree with that myself.
as yogani says: all the best on your chosen path |
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gatito
United Kingdom
179 Posts |
Posted - Mar 13 2012 : 4:07:53 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by maheswari
quote:
I'm not sure that I'd agree with that myself.
as yogani says: all the best on your chosen path
Thank you. 
And may you also find the guru in you. |
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maheswari
Lebanon
2520 Posts |
Posted - Mar 13 2012 : 4:43:26 PM
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also Bodhi Tree said it very eloquently in another thread:
quote:
To each his own! Thanks for your replies, gentlemen!
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gatito
United Kingdom
179 Posts |
Posted - Mar 13 2012 : 5:00:42 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by maheswari
also Bodhi Tree said it very eloquently in another thread:
quote:
To each his own! Thanks for your replies, gentlemen!
Yes, incredible eloquence.
Now I'm regretting my heresy. |
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christinev
Australia
5 Posts |
Posted - Mar 13 2012 : 7:52:47 PM
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hello again
thank you for all the gracious and thoughtful comments. i appreciate such insight and depth posed here.
and for my first post i have to add that i feel as if i've just walked in to a room of old friends the way you guys bounce of each other. community is a beautiful thing.
i agree with you Carson, that there is only one road. and no, i didn't find your comments too ambiguous. i get your ambiguity, no worries mate.
i see that the choices we make will only form one road and their are opportunities for learning on endless paths. but at this definite fork in the road, i feel a pressure to ask myself which path would allow for the greatest opportunity for authentic truth. i know i can be authentic, and can grow and love regardless of path, circumstance, or environment but...some paths simply allow for more flow. i could argue with myself here about the limitations of self examination and discovery i'm forming around certain paths but i think in the end it just comes down to a heart knowing.
in retrospect, that "pressure" of time closing in was more to do with my internal tug of war. i believe in the flow of Life, and so sometimes abdicate my authentic truth in favor of sitting back and letting Life sort it out for me. i see it as a combination of us choosing and allowing (and that's another topic all together i'll leave for today..). but ultimately i believe there are times when we must choose, i suppose these questions came up because i wondered how much time i had left... a futile question and not truly worth pondering.
thank you Karl, for the reminder that practice takes presidence over trying to force a belief. time will be what it is.
and yes, BuddhiHermit you pretty much summed it up.
thank you for all the responses everyone. |
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CarsonZi
Canada
3189 Posts |
Posted - Mar 14 2012 : 12:10:29 PM
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Hi Christine
I'm not sure that I was clear with what I was trying to say..... I'll try to restate.
What I'm trying to say is that ultimately we don't have any choices. It APPEARS that we do, but in an ultimate sense we aren't actually choosing anything. Things are how they are, things happen how they happen and everything happens in it's own time. And if things are how they are and happen how they happen, is it ever actually possible for you to choose something different?
Let me create a simple example to see if I can make my point clearer.
Say you wake up in the morning and you notice that there are thoughts of wanting to have a coffee. So you go get a coffee. In subjective reality it appears that you have chosen to get a coffee because you wanted one, right? Right. Well, from an ultimate perspective there was never any choice. Saying that you were able to make a choice about whether or not to go get a coffee indicates that you could have chosen NOT to have gotten a coffee. But in reality that was never a possibility, it was only a thought that you could have done something different. Any "could have" is not real. You did not have the option to not get a coffee simply because you *did* get a coffee. Does that make sense?
Let's bring our example closer to home.
You think that you have a choice to end things with your mate, but really there is no choice to end things at all. Things will either end with him or they won't. And if they do, it will happen when it happens. The apparent choice exists only in subjective reality. You feel like there is a choice but really the choice in this moment has already been made... you are still together. Any belief that things could be otherwise is just a belief, a thought. If/when things end it will not be a "choice." It will just happen. The driving force behind the ending will not ultimately be you. It may APPEAR that it is you, but it isn't. "You" don't exist. "You" aren't in control. At least not ultimately.
I'll admit that all this "in the ultimate sense" stuff is subjectively useless. But what seeing things from the ultimate perspective *can* help with is surrendering to things as they are. And that is I guess what I am trying to point to. That doesn't mean that things should/shouldn't or will/won't end with your mate. It just means that whatever is going to happen, is going to happen in it's own time, not yours. So you can relax your thinking around it all as your thinking about how things could be is not going to change anything. Things will be how they will be. Always.
The "future" contains unlimited possibilities and how we act in this moment is going to dictate what the future will look like. But how we act in this moment is not a "choice." We don't have the choice to act other than how we do. It's a seeming paradox that ultimately isn't a paradox at all. So I suggest cultivating the ability to let go of the belief that you are in control and allow Life to just flow through you. All this trying to steer things in a specific direction only obstructs the natural flow of life and makes things less smooth. Ultimately things will be how they will be. So surrender to things as they are and let the mind relax around the belief that you are in control of what the future will look like.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Love!
Carson
P.S> It's perhaps obvious that my telling you to cultivate the ability to surrender is also pointless (just like believing things could be different than they are). You will either surrender or you won't. But we can't know what will catalyze change, so I'm just here sharing what I'm sharing because I don't have a choice to do otherwise.  |
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gatito
United Kingdom
179 Posts |
Posted - Mar 14 2012 : 3:03:19 PM
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Hi again christinev
I agree fully with what Carson says and I'd just like to add what I have found to be a vital caveat.
You can look and see that what Carson says makes absolute sense on an intellectual level but still be left with the felt sense that you are actually making choices. Therefore, unless and until this felt sense has dissipated, paradoxically, you need to make the choice to investigate this experience fully, otherwise, you can become stuck in the neo-advaitan trap of of adopting a belief system that takes you even further away from Truth (i.e. giving up prematurely, which leads to a sense of despair). This is what distinguishes an intellectual understanding of advaita from the living experience, which is one of peace, beauty and contentment, at which point, the seeking simply ends naturally.
I hope this makes sense; if it doesn't, please feel free to question me rigorously! |
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christinev
Australia
5 Posts |
Posted - Mar 15 2012 : 7:09:28 PM
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I really needed this reminder.
My mind's volume just turned way down.
Thank you. |
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running out of "time"
