Daily Excerpt: Life, Liberty, & Covid-19 (Ortman) - Flowing Time
excerpt from Life, Liberty, & Covid-19
FLOWING TIME
The river of life, time, and consciousness flows
continuously. It flows from an inexhaustible source and moves toward an end
shrouded in mystery. Uncertainty about the movement of time is inescapable.
Despite our experience of the mysteriousness of time, we try to fix its natural
flow with our ideas of what we think should happen. We try to control the
uncontrollable and feel defeated and hopeless. We experience the futility of
trying to predict or control the future, like trying to be Master of the
Universe. The 2500-year-old book of Chinese Wisdom, Tao Te Ching (1)
aptly observes, “Trying to control the future is like trying to take the master
carpenter’s place. When you handle the master carpenter’s tools, chances are
that you’ll cut yourself.” (74)
During this stressful time, we may try to cope with our
uncertainty by seeking islands of certain knowledge in the unpredictable flow
of time. We may try to cope with the mysterious timetable and outcome of the
pandemic by imagining how it will all turn out. We need hope to survive. Our
hope may proceed in two directions that give us the illusion of security. We
may become pessimistic, imagining a terrible and dreadful conclusion like that
of the great plague of the middle ages. Or we may become optimistic, looking
forward to a favorable outcome that matches our wishes for minimal harm.
Neither approach, however, is real hope. Authentic hope, as St. Paul says,
respects that the future is always unknown and unknowable: “Now hope that sees
is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not
see, we wait with endurance.” (Romans 8: 24-25)
True hope embraces the inevitable uncertainty of the passage
of time. It waits patiently for the future to unfold naturally from the present
moment. For the past and the future do not exist. Only the present is real, and
it passes instantaneously. We cannot grasp it. If we try, we lose it to memory
or expectation, fixing it in an idea. We can only experience it fully with an
open mind and heart.
One patient of mine began each session with a question, in a
sort of ritual. He asked me, “What’s new?” I responded, “This present moment.
It has never existed in the history of the world and never will again.” All is
new. Openness to novelty and surprise in the present moment opens us to live
with hope. We wait and watch with openness to what happens and respond
spontaneously to the immediate needs of the moment.
Another patient was disturbed by a man she met who
prophesied the end of the world and told her, “Look at this plague, the extreme
weather, and all the false prophets. They are signs the end is near.” When does
the world end? We all hold different views to give us a foothold in the
unpredictable flow of time. Some of a scientific bent say it will occur in the
distant future when the big bang that began the universe reverses itself. Those
more religious look for signs announcing Armageddon. The fear mongers who
exhibit paranoia believe their world will end with the collapse of society and
the coming of anarchy. Many believe our world ends with our individual deaths.
I personally believe that our worlds end in each moment. Something dies so new
life can emerge in every moment. The past must die for the future to be born.
Marcus Aurelius (2), the philosopher-king, wrote, “Everything’s destiny is to
change, to be transformed, to perish. So that new things can be born.” (12: 21)
This change occurs in every moment.
If we pay close attention to our experience, we observe that
every moment is pregnant with meaning. Each moment waits to unfold and reveal
itself. As the saying goes, “We live life forward and understand it backward.”
The meaning of the moment often dawns on us long after the event, in quiet
moments of reflection. Nevertheless, our reflections are guided by the belief:
“There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under
the heavens.” (Ecclesiastes 3: 1) The Tao Te Ching states it poetically:
There is a time for being ahead,
A time for being behind;
A time for being in motion,
A time for being at rest;
A time for being vigorous,
A time for being exhausted;
A time for being safe,
A time for being in danger.
The Master sees things as they are, without trying to control
them.
She lets them go their own way, and
resides at the center of the circle. (29)
In short, if we fully engage ourselves in the present
moment, keeping alert and aware, we will know what needs to be done. And the
future will take care of itself.
For more posts about dr. Dennis Ortman and his books, click HRE.
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