As you may recall, one of the essential aspects of Atman is its timeless nature. Like God, each of us is an eternal being, yet we've been deluded into believing that we are finite. Each of us has bought a piece of real estate in the world of time, and it has been a very bad investment.
We live our lives as if there were a beginning and an end to who we are, and we live as if death were the only thing certain in this world. Indeed, from a bodily point of view, we live very much in time...
In many ways, time is the bedrock on which the rest of maya is built...
This is why it's exceedingly difficult to transcend time. Time is so much a part of our psyche that we may wonder why we would even want to transcend it. But time, when used by ego, is a weapon that keeps us in fear...
As a matter of fact, time was a key part of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. He was once asked to explain this complex theory in terms that the common person could understand. He said, "One minute with your hand on a hot stove would seem like an hour, whereas one hour kissing the woman you love will seem like one minute. That's relativity."
Because our true nature is eternal, the ego needs to keep the mind separate from eternity in order to keep us searching for peace without possibility of success. In order for a person to be separate, he or she must have a beginning and an end. Likewise, in order for us to be limited, time is a prerequisite. In this sense, time is the glue that holds the illusion together.
Just as in every other aspect of yoga, we cannot transcend time by our denial. People try to escape the effects of time by using cosmetics and buying fast cars. Of course, none of this works. In effect, when we try to deny the seeming reality of time, we simply make it appear more real.
To a yogi, time is not bad. Actually, time is very useful while we are here in this illusion. Time creates a space for evolution to take place, and offers each of us the opportunity to keep trying things until we finally choose the peace of our true nature over the insanity of the ego. Again, time is not bad; it's simply not real.
Rather than make time good or bad, yoga helps us to let go of the need for time. This can only be done in the present moment. Just as sensation was the door that led from the external world to our inner world, the practice of dharana (focus... being in the moment) leads us through the door of the present moment into the realm of eternity.
The ego seeks to have us live in the past or in the future because we will never find eternity there. That's why every mystical tradition places such strong emphasis on staying present. The present moment is the only time when we can enter into eternal bliss. Englightenment is not something that comes after many lifetimes; it's a decision we make now.
Choosing Reality
"Reshape yourself through the power of the will; never let yourself be degraded by self-will. The will is the only friend of the Self, and the will is the only enemy of the Self."
In the movie Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Quigon, a Jedi knight, reminds his young student, Anakin, "Your focus determines your reality." ... His advice might well have come from a yogi, because it's a fundamental aspect of yogic philosophy that one's mental focus affects reality.
Because the practice of dharana helps us to live more and more in the present moment, we are able to determine the reality in which we find ourselves... The deeper benefits of concentrating your mind in the present moment involve a conscious choice of your reality.
Each of us has created our own reality... Until a person starts on the spiritual path, life seems to happen by accident or by fate, but as we become more and more present to life, we see that life is a series of choices that are made in the present moment. For just that reason it's important to bring focus to the present moment. Changing your mind, and consequently changing your reality, can only happen in the present moment. We can spend a lot of time regretting or feeling nostalgic about the past. We can fantasize about the future or live in fear of it. But both the past and the future are illusions. The past is gone and the future is nonexistent. Therefore, the only time that exists is now. Because the eternal now is the only time there is, it's the only place where we can change our minds, and the practice of dharana bring us to this present state of mind.
...
At a family reunion, my cousin told me about each of her husbands, and I noticed a pattern. Each of her husbands had left her for another woman. This series of negative experiences had left her with the opinion that "men are all jerks." Rather than be insulted by being lumped into the 'jerk' category because of my gender, I decided to explore this belief with her...
As she continued to tell me about all her bad relationship luck, I could see her dipping deeper and deeper into an ego drama that had a bad tailspin. Since self-pity is like nails on a chalkboard for me, I decided to confront her...
"If you believe that all men are jerks and pigs, you're going to see that everywhere. But if you start to change your mind, I think you'll find that the men you meet in the future will be quite well adjusted and respectful. The key is to change your mind now, rather than wait for some future prince charming to do it for you."
Like my mother's cousin, we're all directing our focus out into the world and seeing the results. If we focus on cheating husbands or negative experiences, that's what we'll unconsciously create in our lives. But if we learn to focus our attention on things that support us and cultivate a spiritual base on which to stand, we'll find more positive experiences.
There's more than just wishful thinking here. How we focus the mind determines how our reality will unfold. This is such an important facet of our spiritual path. Until we learn to focus the mind on the present moment and make conscious choices, we will always be waiting for the better hand to be dealt us, and even if we get a good hand, we'll live in fear of the next round, because luck has a funny way of running out at the worst possible time. That's why it's so important to see that life is not about luck or fate, but rather about choice.
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