Time

There are 82 posts tagged Time (this is page 5 of 5).

Timeless Living

Does our concept and understanding of time make us old? We already know that strong thoughts are capable of changing physical matter. In certain cases, there have been people who have cured their own fatal diseases by refusing to accept death; by refusing to give up. Some of those who have an extreme faith in God have experienced unexplainable events. Are these events nothing more than an example of mind over matter? Is their own mind unleashing the power to cause events that are unexplainable to current day science?

If the mind is this powerful then why wouldn't our understanding of time also affect the way we age? We have in our heads the concept of years, months, days, hours, minutes, and even seconds. We look at a watch and see the seconds ticking away. We say to ourselves "time is ticking away" or "X amount of seconds has passed since I looked at this watch". Every time we write down the date, on a check, a deposit slip, a letter, we are reminded of today's date. We know Monday through Friday is a work day and Saturday and Sunday are our mini-vacations. Periodically we check how many days or weeks until our next long vacation or holiday. We have a birthday every year to remind us how much time has passed since we were born.

It's as if we have this concept of time so that we know when we should be close to death. Why would anyone want to keep track of such a thing? People have in their mind "I'm 50 years old, so I'm at least half-way through my life". They believe it with such conviction that they probably help make it come true.

Escaping the concept of time is nearly impossible. We live in a world where everything is dependent on the time. We have appointments set by the date, we need to write checks with today's date on them, and arriving at work on time requires our knowledge and understanding of time. From the day we are born, the concept of time is cast upon us. We are put to bed at a certain time, we are allowed to play for a certain amount of time, and each year that passes we have a memorable birthday to celebrate it.

I'm sure everyone can agree that the older we get the faster the years, and time in general, passes us by. Maybe it's because our understanding of time, and our experience with it, has caused our biological clocks to speed up. We know that time is relative to size. Larger objects perceive time different then smaller objects.

Take for example a common house fly. He buzzes around at 7.2 feet per second, pretty fast from our point of view. Now add into the equation his maximum life expectancy of 30 days and assume our maximum life expectancy is 100 years. That means for him there are 69 seconds in a typical day. OK, great, so what does all this mean? Well, let me finish. Let's say the house fly is watching a car moving at 200 MPH (293.2 feet per second). To get his perspective of how fast the car is actually moving, we need to calculate how many times more seconds there are in a typical human day (86400) than in his day (69); about 1250 times more. Now divide the car's speed (293.2 feet per second) by 1250, and we get .23 feet per second. That's how fast the 200 MPH car seems to be moving to the fly: .23 feet per second. Now do you know why you never seem to be able to catch a fly? The holes in fly swatters work by reducing the amount of air flow pushed downwards, which reduces the chances the fly will feel the fly swatter coming.

OK, enough about flies. I used that example to prove that the larger the object, the faster time appears to pass. Does that mean when we're toddlers, time passes much slower because we are physically smaller? It probably does. But think beyond physical size. The older we become, the more "stuff" we accumulate, the more stuff we accumulate the more things become "ours" and the bigger "our" world becomes. Take me for example: I own three investment properties, and hold several different jobs. My world feels much bigger than it did before I owned any properties and when I held only one job. I know more people than I did 5 years ago and my social network has grown. I am larger in life than I was 5 years ago. Why wouldn't that also cause time to pass quicker?

Maybe the secret to a long life isn't as simple as living healthy or taking care of yourself, but rather a combination of positive thinking and uncluttered, simple living. The goal shouldn't be to live as long as you can, but rather to create an environment where normal time has no meaning, and no impact, on your life. We can accept responsibility without creating a physical or mental attachment to things in the world. A cameraman uses a quarter-million dollar camera with care and precision, but he doesn't own the camera, his director does. An actor plays his role with full knowledge that he isn't really the character he's playing, but he fools everyone into believing he is. He feels better and more relaxed when he's off the set and can act like himself again. Don't you feel better when you're on vacation, away from all your "stuff"? Or when you're sitting on the beach listening to the ocean? Why? Why do we feel that way?

Foundations

This article was written when I was 15 years old and was originally published in a bi-monthly newsletter that my dad put together called The Light of Wisdom. I'm republishing the article here on my blog for archival purposes.

Every thing that is built needs a foundation. Houses, factories, buildings, skyscrapers, roads, highways, and even humans! When we are born, it is like we are just starting to dig into the soil where we want to build our house. Then as we grow up, the things we learn and the thoughts we think, are like adding to the house's structure. Depending on how we were brought up and what materials we used, our house will be made of bricks, and stay upright even if problems arise, or we will have a house made of cards, which could fall apart with just the smallest problem. So, as you see, how we grow up tells us what our house will be like in the future.

Well now you might say to yourself, "Well, I was not raised properly, so now I am not going to be able to have a good life. My foundation is not good, and now it's too late." Well, if you say that, then you are VERY wrong! Can you rebuild a house's foundation??? Yes, you can. Just start over again! That's right, by rebuilding your life's house, you can create a new foundation. It doesn't matter what age you are. In fact, rebuilding your foundation is so fast and simple, that it can be done every SECOND! If you could rebuild the foundation of a house every second, do you think it would ever get worn down??? No, it won't. But the reason you can't do that, as you know, is because it takes time and money. But to rebuild the foundation of your life can be done every second. And our time is VERY limited.

Think in minutes for a second. Not years, or months, or weeks, or even days or hours. Think in minutes. How many minutes do you have left??? Now you may be realizing that your time is so limited that there is not enough of it to do everything you want to accomplish in life. That's right. There isn't. That's why you have to pick out the things that you NEED to do, and not WANT to do. If you spend all your life looking for something outside of yourself to make you happy, then it's like looking for a blue sky on the ground. You will never find it.

Everything that you need in life came with this package called life. It has five tools with which we work. They are our five senses. If we misuse these tools, then we will mess up life's complex structure and we won't know how to put it back in order.

So, if we start building a new foundation right NOW, then we can become better than the last minute. But only you can do it. Can someone eat for you? No. Of course not! In the same way, you have to change. Don't worry if people don't listen to you when you try to tell them to change for the better. Remember, you can't change them. They have to change. By trying to change them, you are using those minutes doing something which is NOT helping you (or anyone). So, if you want people to listen to you, tell them using your own example. If they follow you, then they will change. If they don't, then you can't help them.

What should you do to build up your foundation of life? Well, you could start by just being happy ALL the time. And if a problem comes in your way, act like the water, go AROUND it. Don't stop your whole life just because of a little problem. Next, you could always help people who need help. Give instead of take. Use your words carefully. If you speak all the time, then your words don't have much affect. But if you only talked when needed, people would want to hear what you are going to say.

So building a strong foundation for your life is the first thing you need to do. Then, add GOOD and strong things to it, and build it up. But, remember not to put even ONE bad thing in it. For example, if you have a big garden of flowers, and you put just one seed of a thorn bush, the thorn bush will over grow the flowers and be very hard to get rid of. Even though the flower bed might be many thousands of times bigger than the thorn seed, it will soon grow and destroy the beautiful garden. So, in the same way, don't put any bad things in the structure of your house. If you do, it may one day fall down on you! So that is my good advise to you. Please reread this article if you didn't understand it fully, and remember, it is up to you to change your life!