Past and the future

Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time: and not only time but temporalities, not only temporal things but temporal affections, not only temporal affections but the very taint and smell of time. - Meister Eckhart

We think that past and future are real because the mind keeps brooding over what we have done and what others have done to us, what we will do and what others will do to us. But it is not past and future that are real; it is our brooding on the past and the future that is real. If we
could withdraw our attention from these will-o'-the-wisps, many of our problems would simply dissolve.

As our meditation deepens, we develop the ability to withdraw our attention more and more from the past and the future to focus it on the present. And as we begin to live more and more in the present, we make the exhilarating discovery that past and future exist only in our minds. It
is a tremendous realization, for it means that we are released from any burden of guilt about the past and any anxiety about the future. Every moment is unique and discrete. When our concentration is complete, we rest completely in the present. Then we do not live in time, we
live in eternity.


contributed by Kavita Thuthija