The Beauty of All Things

Eternity is not the continuity of time forever. That is the meaning in the dictionaries: forever and forever. But forever is part of time—prolonged time, indefinitely prolonged, but it is still time. Eternity is jumping out of time; it is nontemporal, it is no-time.

The present moment is the door to eternity. The past and future are part of time. The present is not part of time—the present is just between the two, between the past and the future. If you are absolutely alert, only then are you in the present; otherwise you keep missing it. If you are not alert, by the time you are alert it is already gone, it has become the past; it is so swift.

So between the past and the future there is a door, a gap, an interval—now—that is the door to eternity. Only in eternity is bliss possible: in time, at the most, pleasure; at worst, pain—but both are fleeting. Their nature is not different. Pain comes and goes, pleasure comes and goes. They are momentary, water bubbles.

Bliss has no counterpart. It is not a duality of pleasure and pain, day and night. It is nondual, it knows no opposite. It is a transcendence. Try to be more and more in the present. Don't move too much in imagination and memory. Whenever you find yourself wandering into memory, into imagination, bring yourself back to the present, to what you are doing, to where you are, to who you are. Pull yourself back again and again to the present. Buddha has called it recollecting oneself; in that recollection by and by you will understand what eternity is.

Text: Osho

Ending the year with eternity...

Niceee!

Directed by Saam Farahmand. Music by Radio Soulwax.

The Surfer.

September 29th thru October 27th. Nice.

The soundtrack of my youth... I still remember getting the LP It'll End In Tears back in the early 80s. This second edition remastered boxed set will be available later this year. Memories fade; fragments get even more fragmented.

Nothing ever stays the same.

Who dares it - has no courage
To whom it is missing - feels well
Who owns it - is bitterly poor
Who is successful - is damaged
Who gives it - is as hard as stone
Who loves it - stays alone

Originally posted January 7th, 2004.

A friend of mine solved the riddle, and now, it's not as intriguing as it was when I had not known the answer. I like the mystery. It keeps me grounded and it feels comforting.

Oftentimes, not-knowing is an integral part of the grand equation.

As we cross the threshold into the millennium, more and more people have begun to ponder the question of time. According to reports, the United States has spent millions of dollars to build an eternal clock. It will only strike once every century, to remind people to slow down their steps and to reflect upon their shortcomings. To understand and successfully utilize time has indeed become a worthwhile issue for modern people.

Many people often complain how time flies, while others complain about how time crawls. Some spend their time in search of fame and fortune instead of spending time with their loved ones, while others waste their time on trivial matters instead of using time to better themselves. If students are unwilling to spend time in the classroom, how can they acquire knowledge and broaden their horizons? If farmers are unwilling to spend time plowing their land, how can they reap a full harvest? It is clear that the way time is perceived is dependent upon how time is used.

Once upon a time, someone asked a Chan master to teach him how to manage time. The Chan master replied, "When time passes, it never returns; every second is thus precious." Hence, whoever can use time wisely has control of his or her life. It does not matter how old you are; what is important is how you manage your time.

"For a person who is exhausted, the road is long; for a person who cannot sleep, the night is endless; for a person who does not understand the truth, the reality of birth and death is far-reaching." We must understand that the past will never return, the present is gone in a blink of an eye, and the future is fast approaching and will become the past in a moment. An eminent master once said, "A day’s time is more precious than the treasure of the universe."

As long as we can understand the fleeting essence of time and learn how to use it wisely, we can break the boundaries of time and transcend the limits of temporal space. As long as we can learn to treasure every second of our lives and seize every moment, we will be able to realize and experience the truth in the saying, "a moment is eternity." In this way, precious time is not limited to the tolling of an eternal clock.

Text: Venerable Master Hsing Yun

From May 29th, 2007.

How did you spend your time today?

In years to come, when you have far surpassed your golden days, say, over 90, and feeling all the 'symptoms' an any 90+ year-old would feel... What would you do? In general, I'm talking about symptoms like fatigue, memory loss, feeling inactive, decreased judgement, misplacing things, disoriented from time to time, difficulty performing familiar tasks or even having problems with speech...

If one day, you have truly come to this - What can you do? Or shall I rephrase: What is left to do?

At then, who do you live for? Yourself? For others? What would you think about? You wouldn't think about what movies are opening this weekend, the latest trend in fashion, or how your stocks are performing this week... Oh right, the grand children... but they'll have all grown up by then. The great grand kids? That is if you're lucky, and if so, would you remember their names? Most likely, maybe you would think about - Life, in retrospect [that's whatever you can remember, you think you remember, or whatever you can conjure up], and Death [the one true friend that'll wait for you 'til the very end of time]!

What was the meaning of life again??? Ah yes, that's it! But will I even remember?

Thinking back, sitting still, looking forward... The above was posted back on December 8th, 2003. Please pardon the grammatical errors and such. Maybe I just have a different way of using words. Not sure.

Tempe: Something to think about... at least for now.

I miss you.

--

Currently listening:
The Key Sessions Quartet - Mad World

The below was typed up over 15 months ago but was never posted. Well, rummaging thru my old drafts, here it is.

Nobody is superior, nobody is inferior, and nobody is equal either. Everyone is unique. Equality is psychologically wrong. Everybody cannot be an Albert Einstein and everybody cannot be a Rabindranath Tagore. But that does not mean that Rabindranath Tagore is superior because you cannot be him. Rabindranath cannot be you either.

My whole point is that everybody is a unique manifestation. So we should destroy the whole idea of superiority and inferiority, equality and inequality, and replace it with a new concept of uniqueness.

And every individual is unique.

Just look lovingly and you will see that every individual has something which nobody else has.

Text: Osho