Eckhart Tolle explores time's contradiction: it lets us act and build meaning, but it also ages and breaks down our bodies. He argues that only the present moment is real; past and future exist only in thought.
Can time ever stop? What is time? One thing we know is it's associated with thought. Even some philosophers recognize that. And time is something very, very strange. It seems that on this level of existence, where here we are, there's no escape from it. It seems here, no matter what you do, it will get you. It will, at some point, start attacking your physical vehicle and begin to do bad things to it. I discovered it because that's what time is doing to my physical vehicle now. In other words, I am getting old. On the other hand, time enables you to do all the things that you still want to do. So that's a good side of time. The worst thing that many people could be told is you have no more time. What? Your time is up. Oh, my God, I still have so much to do. And now, if we could stop time here in this dimension, it means you would not be able to do anything because everything you do takes time. So if we stop time, you would have to be frozen. It's called frozen in time. Although there is no time. You're frozen out of whatever. So you'd have to. I can't move my hand because it requires time. 2 seconds. Can't do anything, can't drink. Everything takes time. So I mean, you can, you know what, you can freeze food. Then time does not attack it so easily. But eventually that will also go. No need to go into that. So on the one hand, time is a wonderful thing, because everything you do, experiencing things, learning things, acquiring things, exploring this and that, discovering new things. Ah, look there. Oh, let's go here. Now. Purpose, personal purpose in life. I want this or these. You need time, and there's plenty of it. But many humans say they don't have it. They wish they had more. That's very strange. So on the one hand, the lovely, helpful face of time allows you to do things. And then at some point, it begins to become unfriendly to you. First time, time gave you a lot. And then time says time is up. And then it begins to take things away. First, it enabled you to achieve and to attain and to get. And then you take things away. You begin to lose things. Friends. You begin to lose friends because they are getting old. Certain abilities you may lose in your body. Jogging. I don't do it anymore. So walking still fine. Jogging is too much. So time. And then gradually, just like an old. It does things not just to the physical vehicle, your car too. An old car. The older the car is, more things will go wrong with it. Of course, you can delay the onset of destructive aspect of time. You can delay it. You can, through getting plenty of exercise, good nutrition, also meditation or presence practice really helps to delay the decay of the body. And that's a good thing. It can delay it. And there are all kinds of new things I was told about that people now do these strange things they take. I know some people who every day they take 30 or 40 capsules and liquids and all to delay to what? The destructive aspect of time. But eventually they also have to go. You can also do things externally to repair the visible effects of time. In your face, for example, you see that gravity tends to affect your face. I noticed it again this morning in the mirror. My dad had a good sense of humor and he said at some point, I don't know how old he was, 70, that mirrors are not the same quality they used to be. And so, yes, time is inevitable. It's like, you could say, like being on a express train. You can't get off. Well, you do get off eventually. That's when the physical vehicle goes and you're off. Maybe. But even then, perhaps there's some element of time still there. We don't need to go there right now. We don't need travel into astral dimension and talk about whether there's time there. There is, but it doesn't matter. So there's no escape from time here. But now there's a very strange thing that you discover. Although time seems to affect everything I call it out here, you never time. You can never see time. All you ever have is the present moment. In your immediate experience, there is no time. That's an interesting fact. In your immediate experience of life, there is no time. And that is, you can start thinking about it, but you don't need to. It's so simple because it's so obvious that your immediate experience of life is always the present moment. This and only when you start thinking, this time, what did I say a minute ago? How much longer is this guy going to talk? Am I going to sit here for two hours? Then there's time. Suddenly, when I say we are going to be here for two hours, it is a mental structure, these words. And I introduce time. And of course it's true on this level. But on the other hand, your experience of this evening is inseparable from the present moment. It's always now. Wow. Now, most people, they might, when I say it like this, they might say, oh, that's interesting. Let me think about that. You can't think about it. It's too immediate. It's too obvious. It's always now and then, of course, you can start talking about, well, does the past actually exist? We don't need to go there. All we need to realize is there's all. For you. In your immediate experience, there's only always the present moment.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
