Inner Work

For the week of July 31, 2006

Lines of Time

Innumerable possibilities open before us at every moment, offering paths along different lines of time. Our choices, or lack thereof, determine the trajectory of our life. With the many roads not taken, our possibilities continually bifurcate, propelling us along the particular, zigzagging line of time that we actually live. All this is obvious — from an external viewpoint. What is not so obvious is that (1) our inner, spiritual state defines our experience and our time, and (2) there exist different possible levels of time for us, corresponding to the possible levels of our inner states.

The higher our state, the more sacred is our time. In conscious presence, for example, we live more than we do in our typical, half-conscious states. Each moment arrives in vivid fullness and depth, embraced in our being. Our time is enriched and seems longer, in a positive sense. Instead of being completely taken by and identified with the details and our reactions to them, we live in openness both to the details and to the larger perspective simultaneously. We see and feel and experience more.

Even when we cannot change difficult circumstances, we still have the possibility of changing our inner world by adopting a different attitude. And this act selects our line of time, the line of our life.

This moment is our life. How we live this moment is how we live our life. If we reject or ignore this moment, we reject or ignore our life. The quality of our presence in the mundane details of life, the depth of our prayer and meditation, the selflessness of our kindness, and the joy of our creative engagements — all these can raise the level of our time, the line of our life.

For this week, notice the line of time you are living in any given moment. Can you raise it to a higher level?

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