Why are we so obsessed with what time it is?
Time has got to be one of the greatest causes of stress, because we always think we are running out of it. Ironically, when we are still our mind is either in the past or the future, but if you let it,- it will slowly settle into now, hence meditation as a great practice to allow some space around this stressful illusion that time is indeed running out. Underneath this is of course the fear that ultimately when it runs out that’s it, The End.
We are condemned by the constraints of time. When Sartre said ‘man is condemned to be free,’ I see time as one of the shackles we bear in our ‘freedom’ as human beings. There’s never enough time, or we are running out of time, or we watch the clock until we finish work and then real time kicks in. Or the only time that time has meaning is when it is the weekend or we are on holiday.
Time is like a bag with a big hole in it. Where did the time go? I wish we had more time? I guess it’s because clock time never stands still so there is an illusion that time is always moving, there is no present moment, or there it is and then it is gone. Quick catch it if you can!
Meditation is one way to go beyond time and actually allow it to flow through the hole in the bag. Be part of that flow instead of trying to control it or pin it down.