People, animals, and plants all exist in (and “as”) time. Thought/thinking is fundamentally sequential and is of time. It (i.e., thought) takes time in cause and effect (causal) sequences. Few seriously question about whether or not humans can exist beyond time’s framework. Fewer still ever exist in communion with the timeless.
Timelessness is, itself, a symbolic word and, like all words, has real limitations; the word is definitely not the thing. People tend to live with (and “as”) words and mental images, all of which are sequential symbols that basically are not the things that they represent or stand for. The word “energy” is not the energy; the word “sacred” is not the sacred. Yet we accept words and cling to words and mental images — habitually — and go on in that superficial way until we die.
If people could somehow be visited by the timeless, they surely would perceive it as being sacred, beyond the ordinary, beyond the mundane. That sacredness is never part of the field of time. It is not composed of patterns that you can see; it is not composed of patterns that you can hear; it is not composed of things that you can feel. The timeless and time never fully meet at any point. For it to visit one — and “visit” is a very crude and limited way of putting it, as all words are — one cannot merely be composed of sequential images, thoughts, patterns, fears, prayers, wishes, and desires. Most people are incapable of that — with all of their innumerable habits — and so they remain as they have for generations upon generations.
You cannot invite timelessness. It can never come if you are craving for it. It (i.e., timelessness) is not responsible for what takes place in the field of time, for neither did it create the field of time nor does it get involved with changing things (i.e., manipulating things) in the field of time.
So one who is wise can go beyond merely habitually existing as superficial symbols and other sequential mental patterns; then being beyond mere habitual routine, the timeless may or may not occur. But there is more to being wise than meets the eye.
From E. E. Cummings:
there’s time for laughing and there’s time for crying— for hoping for despair for peace for longing —a time for growing and a time for dying: a night for silence and a day for singing but more than all(as all your more than eyes tell me)there is a time for timelessness
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The photo is of some diminutive wild plants that grow amongst our lawn-grass. There are two or three insects in the photo. Do you see them?
Speaking of time, I just spent a bit of time exploring your photo. It’s really quite wonderful, with so many details to delight the eye.
I really liked your comment that we “cannot invite timelessness.” That’s so true. And the passage from e.e.cummings is great. You reminded me of this, from T.S. Eliot’s “East Coker.” The excerpt is a little long, but it’s so good.
“There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.”
Yes, good for you that you see a connection there! I have, among other T.S. Eliot poetry, a small, paperback copy of the Four Quartets (that is all worn out from my many years of rereading it). It is a work of pure genius. Weird about how Cummings and Eliot knew each other well in youth. It makes one wonder. 🙂
Oh Tom what a post – you nailed the linear limitations of time as humans normally experience it – In reality I believe and it has been my experience that past, present, future all exist together and that when I experience timelessness I tap into that reality…. OH, what magnificent picture you took… you know so often people miss the ordinary wonders – I see them everywhere and give thanks as I am sure you do… I would love to use that photo in an essay on the ordinary giving you the credit…. however with that much said, I’m fine with no!
Thank you, Sara. Yes, “mostpeople” have a very barbaric, crude, limited, linear perspective on time. I was, in my writing, however, referring to timelessness in terms of pure enlightenment/nirvana. In that respect, “timelessness” is not, as you say, an “experience.” By the way, such timelessness — during such visitation — causes three physical things to happen to the body. If you are familiar with that timelessness that i am referring to, you should have no problem mentioning what they are.
Sure, you can use the photo, Sara. I’d be honored, and so would my uncut (so far) lawn! So very many have what looks like beautiful, orderly lawns, but their minds are rather ugly and of disorder. 🙂
Since time cannot be directly perceived, our concept of time and timelessness is “reconstructed” in the brain.
What we “reconstruct” is always just a virtual, fragmentary (unreal) set of images or symbols of the real. No wonder why most all of our scientists are still stuck in limited, fragmentary approaches.
Stay safe, Ken.
I enjoyed this post Tom – gets you thinking. I may need stronger glasses as I saw no insects, just violets like I have in my own yard. 🙂
Well, one hopes that it really gets “going beyond mere thinking/reacting” occurring also! That’s the whole point!
Stay very safe, Linda!
So good to have you posting these mental gymnastics again – always perk me up even when I suspect I’m missing a few nuances. Re insects in photo, I find one. I can turn a couple of brown spots into insects if I squint just right, but guessing those are not real. A puzzle!
There is really only one full clear insect… and, really, it doen’t matter.
Good that you get “perked up” by what i write. That is the whole purpose. We need to go beyond the crudities that we have all be taught and accept as valid. The world is in a mess now because of man’s superficial indifference.
Take care, Jazz, and stay safe!
I love how you explained timelessness here tom..you really have a way of making us see things deeper than the usual😊
Good to read, Michelle! Hopefully, something is there that really helps people see beyond what they were spoonfed.
Take care and stay safe.
😊😊😊
Reblogged this on Wolf's Birding and Bonsai Blog.