Timeless

This is a talk given at the Blooming Heart Sangha on Sept. 7, 2023

Like you, I live in an experience of time, …….or at least I think I do.

I often wonder: What is it like to live in an experience of the timeless.
My watch and my phone often remind me of the experience of time, or what I think is time.
On the large scale, time is based on the observation of the rotation of the earth: we break down the rotation into hours and minutes and seconds.
An atomic clock allows time to be based on the observation of very small particles.
Time is annually based on the observation of the movement of the earth around the sun.
Time is sometimes based on observation of the red shift in the movements of stars and we can conjecture the beginning of the cosmos……when did it happen?

Actually, I am not observing time, just the movement of large bodies, or small atoms.

My mind creates time
Time is an artifact of observation. Time, unlike gravity, doesn’t really exist, except in our minds.
So how big a step would it be to move from time to the timeless.
Actually, it seems quite large, but I think I do it routinely; we all do. We do it right here.
I think we experience time routinely; we experience the timeless in mindful practice; in the mindful experience of the here and now, in the experience of the mindful present moment
I think that living in the historic realm is easier to imagine, but the ultimate realm is within reach

We have a clue to this transformative leap, this transformative experience in the five remembrances……you know about them.

It was Bro Phap Hu who pointed out, for me, a new and deeper meaning in the 5 remembrances.
The first four rembrances all refer to the passage of time, things that exist in time: We will die, get old, get sick, lose those we love.
But the fifth remembrance speaks to what endures; it exists out of time
Sister Chan Thuan Nghiem said: “I inherit the results of my actions of body, speech and mind. “ = 5^th remembrance.
“My actions are my continuation.”
My actions endure. They exist beyond my notion of time.
Embeded in the 5th remembrance is an invitation to step into and experience the timeless, an invitation to step into and experience the ultimate,

The 5^th remembrance reminds me how lasting transformation takes place, how transformation endures.

Lasting transformation takes place right now, it takes place as we act in this moment.
Linear time is a mental artifact. Actions endure in the timeless.
Here’s the big news for me: The historic and the ultimate are one and the same.
I can see this when I break the mental constraints on the relationship between linear time and transformation.
It’s not easy: Linear time is a slave driver, it presents an apparent ticking clock for transformation. Hurry up!
But lasting transformation happens now, in the timeless, in the ultimate. Relax in the moment.

The first four remembrances point to the ticking clock.

These things are going to happen in time, death, sickness, age, loss
BUT. And ALSO, what endures is the transformation taking place right now
What endues is taking place in the ultimate, and that is in the right now. = 5^thremembrance.

That is why, for me, what we are doing here right now is so important.

This is my place of transformation, of shaping the timeless.
What I do here is both in time and in the timeless, the historic and the ultimate.
There is no difference, only a mental distinction.
I am often thinking of how what I do now shapes the future of historic time, but there is much more to it.
There are consequences in the historic, and what I do now also shapes the ultimate, timeless.
My mind is fettered to the siren call of time, what will I do tonight when I leave, what will I have to do tomorrow, how soon will this talk be finished.
Mindfulness breaks that tie to time, allows the timeless, the ultimate to be experienced.

For me the practice is about learning how to experience the timeless, the ultimate.

Anything that invites me to mindfulness also invites me to experience the timeless, the ultimate
I touch the 2 billion year old stone around my neck; I can’t imagine 2 billion years and the touching reminds me how I am right now straddling time and the timeless.
We will soon listen attentively to what one another says this evening, that listening allows experience of the timeless
I Attentively feel the shape of the chair or cushion, an experience of the timeless.
I attentively sense the air around me, that action allows me to experience the timeless if done mindfully.
It is what we sometimes call living in the moment…..actually it is also learning to live, to act in the moment-less.
Living, acting in the moment is also living, acting in the ultimate, the timeless.

Thay speaks of standing on the other shore as a future event, and then he also says we are already standing there.

This is it; we are already in the ultimate. In this room, in this moment, I am sitting in time and in the timeless, in the historic and the ultimate
What I do here shapes both, what I do here is transformative in time and in the timeless.
I will die, I will get sick, I will grow old, I will suffer loss. And what I do here will endure.

I invite you to listen to one another as we do dharma sharing with the experience of listening in time and the timeless.