Timeless Living: Meditation Musings

What does it mean to be "on" time?

How can you be "on" something that has no form or substance? How many words come to mind in English (or your first language) that are related to or imply something related to, time:

Now

Then

Before

After

During

While

Sitting at Starbuck's this morning is in the past. Now in my tent is the present. Tonight listening to Krishna Das's last concert here, is in the future. Didn't I just move through three different dimensions of time as I typed those sentences? I felt the cushion of the the round rattan chair under my legs, smelled tonight's dinner cooking in the kitchen not far from my tent, and heard the sound of Krishna Das's voice "Hari Krishna".

What can meditation teach about time?

At the ashram we "officially" meditate every morning and every evening. I find there are many other times of meditation for me during the day:

looking at the blues of the Caribbean sea

letting the waves take me into the shore

dragging my feet in the sand as I walk along the beach

listening to Krishna Das sing

singing in response to him

singing raaga scales

listening to the ocean's roar

feeling the ocean breeze across my face

These experiences teach me how to be me newly in each moment. Past time falls away. Future time does not exist. Now is all there Is. Sometimes in that Now I am lifted up and out into an experience of something beyond myself, yet completely a part of, my Self. Eternal. Ever lasting. Presence.

Hear what Swami Atmananda, a direct student of Swami Sivananda, has to say about meditation and "where to sit" to meditate


coming soon …

Kirtan with Krishna Das

[videos to be added]

At brunch just Now in a conversation with another New Yorker a realization came. One of the things being looked at through my experiences here at the Ashram is a comparison of sitting in silence and stillness and entering into timelessness, and singing kirtan or raaga which, as is the nature of music, is a movement through time, neither silent nor still.

Both practices add infinitely to life

Om shanti