I have been reading Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” I was wondering how I could begin to introduce some of my thoughts on the book to my kungfu class. I then thought to ask a simple question; “where are you now?”
Tolle differentiates between clock time and psychological time. I was beginning to wonder, if we are always in the “now” what happens to goal setting. He places goal setting in “clock time”. Remember when you asked me the question about happiness and I answered “when I am …”, I was in psychological time, and I have been living in the “future”. I remember saying to a friend that I missed 15 years of my life because I was always thinking about “when I get … then …”. I had anchored happiness to an ego need (to have my masters degree, or to own a BMW Z4 and so on).
It is okay to have goals, moreover I believe that goal orientation was (anthropologically speaking) a survival necessity. But when we attach ego needs to our goals fear enters into the equation. The lion does not feel fear when searching for its prey, even when there is little prey to be found. As Tolle says, when our goals are attached to ego needs, the “now” becomes a stepping stone to the future, whereas we should be fully present in the “now” and our goals (“clock time”) should be peripheral. I miss so much because the “now” is just a stepping stone in the race to the future (and before we know it the future is the past and we’re thinking “how time flies”. I was cycling this morning, and thankfully we were present enough to take in the beauty of the sunrise, but we could have been thinking “I must (ought to) ride faster because I must win”.
Anyway, back to “where are you now?”… Where are you now? Are you thinking about what you must do in order to get this or that? Are you thinking about what you have done and worrying about this or that? Where are you now is a powerful question.
Hi Philip,
Congratulations on the launch of your new site! It looks fantastic. I look forward to great content and many wonderful interactions in the years to come.
The notion of time has been one that has occupied my mind as well – I have read Tolle’s ‘The Power of Now’ (in fact it is one of the books we use in our conscious leadership programme with the senior management of our company). I found it a most stimulating and helpful book. I do think that his intention is much more focussed upon awareness of the moment than on the actual concept of time.
However, your question raises some very interesting thoughts indeed! The ancient Greek philosophers spoke of two kinds of time, chronos (from which we get our English word ‘Chronology’ – this is a linear, historical, concept of time). Then they spoke of kairos, this is the kind of time that has to do with moments of rightness, instead of marking sequential events. It has often been described as ‘pregnant’ time: when a child is to be born and gestation is complete, or there is some form of trauma, then kairos comes to the fore, it is the ‘right’ time, or the ‘selected’ moment.
The sages of many of the world’s mystical religious and spiritual traditions (Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Jewish mystics to name but a few) have long emphasized the incredible value of being ‘present to the moment’.
Some years ago when I was doing some research on ‘the new science’ (particularly the work of David Bohm the quantum physicist) I came to realise just how ‘the lived moment’ is hardwired into all of the cosmos. The constant implication and explication of matter in and out of the source of reality (what Bohm called ‘active mind’) is only perceivable in the moment of realisation. Of course this concept was discovered much earlier by Einstein, Rosen and Podoslky (also called the EPR or tunneling effect). You can read about it in one of my books (download a PDF copy here). See pages 38 forward, but particularly from page 40.
One final note about the philosophy of time, as I have come to understand it, is that time is a construct (like mass or speed). Time is not an aspect of the ontological nature of reality – rather, it is something that we have created in order to make sense of the sequence of experience and events that we process in our conscious minds.
Consciousness, however, is an ontological necessity! Becoming conscious of the present moment, and the power of the present moment, is the key to finding blessing and peace in life. However, history is equally important (since our consciousness of our past and the past of others gives us a sense of perspective on the present, and hopefully it makes us wise enough to act with intention and courage). Moreover, a conscious aspiration is also a helpful thing (however, not to the extent that it draws us out of the present moment so that we miss the joy and opportunity of ‘the now’).
Well, those are a few of my thoughts.
Regards,
Dion
Thanks for the thought provoking comments Dion – and thanks for being the first person to comment on my blog. I thought the quote on your blog (“we crucify ourselves between two thieves, the regret of yesterday and the fear of tomorrow”) would have been most appropriate for this post.
While I agree that Tolle was focused on consciousness and the awareness of the moment, I found that using the idea of past and future time very helpful in getting my students to begin to become aware of the present. Sometimes it is easier for people to understand what something is, when you present what it is not.
Hi there Philip!
What a pleasant surprize! Like minded people we are. I am keen to see where this blog might go this year.