Sunday, July 23, 2006

Timefree is Guiltfree

Even the dream of being Julius Caesar or Abe Lincoln would be experienced only one now at a time. Mystics do not hold that there is no Flow in Mind. Quite the contrary; this Flow is a matrix-idea in mysticism. Also, mystics do not hold that time does not exist in the maya-world. As in your dream, things do happen sequentially, and they do take "time" to occur, in this world.

Still, even though "time" might be a mental sense (a sixth sense??), all time must, and can, be experienced (known) only in the now. It is both common sense and mystical understanding that both "past" and 'future" do not exist in the now.

This realization liberates mystics from guilt from the past and worry from the future. These are both ways of turning the mind over to fear, and are not viable options for the mystic. For fear is the only "devil," and fear is the conceptual opposite of Love.

Mystics do believe in recompense (repairing mistakes from the "past") and in remorse (regretting them). But we do not accept, or even believe in, guilt. In the history of the world, guilt has never improved a single person-- although remorse and recompense have improved many a life.

The mystic, living her "second" life in the world of maya, will even go so far as to make plans for the future. To live in a purely Mindworld does not make sense to the mystic. So, she accommodates the flow of time in her practical life, even though she knows that it has no independent or absolute r-reality.

A huge part of m-mysticism (that of maya) is m-accommodation to the boundaries imposed by m-illusion. Without this elastic accommodation and plasticity (adaptation), the mystic would live more like a turnip than like a sage. She must, for example, act in love for herself and others,and this, she must do in the context of a timeflow. Still, the realization of the single now keeps her mind simple and uncluttered, and the great Mind seeks minds of personal simplicity to use as Its instruments in this m-world.

We must avoid the stereotype of the mystic as a being who lives for, within, and according to abstract but unrealistic principles of Mind only. Although her realizations about Mind do provide her with several types and kinds of liberation (moksha), and help her lead a life of Love and service, as well as friendship, not every truth is immediately applicable to the reasonable adaptation to everyday m-life. For example, she knows that all evil is only m-real. But the very call to service as Love prevents her development of complacency, apathy, or inaction to help people and other creatures in suffering.

In a similar way, we must accommodate the flow of time. I wear a talking watch, and consult it several times a day because no one but the most selfish lives for the self alone. We must all live, and thus, time-coordinate, with other people. Far from dismissing their needs as illusions, the mystic is glad to try to help them fulfill their time-based needs. So, it looks as if we are back yet again to that old dichotomy so often discussed between us: Living in two worlds, the Mindworld and the dreamworld.
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