In Mind: Time and Thought

Past and future veil God from our sight.

Burn both of them with fire.

—Rumi

What is troubling us is the tendency to believe that the mind is like a little man within.

—Ludwig Von Wittgenstein

The only version of time that is infused with Awareness is this very moment. The present moment, or the Now, is always here. Always. It is never absent. In fact, there has never been any time other than Now. Something in the past may arise in our minds as a memory, but it still arises in the Now. Something in the future may arise in our minds as anticipation, but even this only ever shows up in the Now. From this moment, the past extends infinitely. From this moment, the future also extends infinitely. Therefore, the present moment is forever at the center of all existence. Just like Awareness, the Now never moves. The causes and conditions that arise in the Now might change, but the Now itself is always simply right here. The present moment itself is simply always, already, forever outside the boundary of past and future, never falling behind or moving ahead. It is in all ways just this. When we connect with this present moment with our full attention, we can actually experience what the Zen tradition calls “No Mind.” No Mind shows itself when the mind lets go of itself and connects spontaneously to the impersonal experience of the Awareness that exists between each and every thought that we might have. In this spaciousness offered by the present moment, we are totally alert yet unfettered by anything personal.

Past and future, in contrast, define our personal versions of experience. Put another way, we might say that our relationship to time is precisely what defines our minds. All of our mental noise and activity, in other words, is rooted in either past experiences or in future desires. Time itself, as both past and future, is therefore nothing other than a series of thoughts that we cling to in our minds. Just like all thoughts, the past and future are moving targets—fertile fantasies to which the ego attaches its many versions of personal meaning. In these experiences of personal meaning, the ego always can cling to so much. In both the personal stories from our past and the personal stories of desire for future outcomes, the ego secures its position in our experience. In fact, ego will even do this dance of clinging to time throughout our entire spiritual journey and everything associated with it. It will do this dance whenever it becomes deeply interested in anything, since this deep interest is simply another form of attachment that diminishes the clarity of our awakening into the fullness of what is happening in the Now.

Unfortunately for the ego, it can’t ever find anything to grasp in the present moment. This is because the present moment is not bound by the limits imposed by the scripts and stories associated with either a personal past and a personal future. As the space surrounding our thoughts, the present moment is not and can never be manipulated by our minds.

In order to get a sense of this, there is an exercise that we can do. First of all, find a place where you can be still for a several minutes. Perhaps it’s a comfortable chair, maybe a meditation cushion in a corner of your living space, maybe it’s in an airport as you wait for your flight. It doesn’t really matter as long as you can simultaneously find a place that supports your solitude as well as your ability to stay alert. For this reason, lying down can sometimes get in the way of an experience of alertness since sleep so easily can overtake us when we lie down. After you find a place for stillness, close your eyes and imagine a massive screen on which a film might be shown. Concentrate on the screen, allowing for anything that shows itself on the screen to do so fully. Regardless of the projection on the screen, simply watch it with total relaxation, noting each image as a memory, a judgment, or a plan. Be careful not to offer any evaluation of these thoughts; just watch and note into which category each image falls.

“I miss the times my brother and I would share as we delivered the morning newspaper when we were kids” would count as a memory.

“I can’t stand the pain I keep getting in my knees as I sit in this ridiculous lotus position” would count as a judgment.

“I’ve got to remember to pick up more dog food” would count as a plan.

Do this for a brief time and gently encourage the recognition of the space between the images. Notice with full attention when the screen is blank. Even if this is barely perceptible, keep giving attention not only to the thoughts on the screen but also to the spaces between the thoughts as well. This space between the thinking activity of mind is No Mind. It is also nothing other than the present moment. It is the Now. It is infinite in its nature and comprehensive in its reach both inside of us as well as outside of us. With practice, the recognition of this space between your thoughts will last longer, eventually resulting in the occupation of a central place in your experience.

Recognizing this space between our thoughts, we begin to come to the realization that all past and all future projections within our Awareness are simply sophisticated scripts written by ego as a way for it to remain in a perceived state of control of each circumstance. So time is what allows the ego to attach to things. Without time, there is only the Now—a place where there can be no attachment since there are no thoughts. Experiencing this present moment without thought we awaken to Freedom.