From within our depths there arises a kind of constant pulse in the form of a longing to know beyond the shadow of any doubt that I am. We cannot help this wanting to be. It is a celestial drive sown into the center of one’s very soul, and it is this nascent need that sends us out looking for someone, anything, to confirm our existence. Of course, the problem is that we keep looking for ourselves in all the wrong places! The Truth is that nothing in the phenomenal world can put this celestial interior pulsation to rest except for one thing: our re-entering that realm of Reality from out of which it originates. This pulse in our soul ?this Heartbeat ?is Timeless in its Source; it seeks, in turn, what is its own Timelessness to close the circle of its Eternal Self.
To touch this Timeless life and realize its transformational powers, we must agree to its terms. It asks for what we now experience as being our life in time in exchange for its Timeless Being. We do not reach the Ground of Real Life ?the shore of our own Timeless Being ?through struggling to secure it in a time to come. We must not make more beginnings, but bring instead a conscious end to our unconscious participation in the life of this time-created and time-creating self. The following can help us with this New Aim to awaken ourselves:
1. Finish Everything You Start: The thought nature loves to produce new images of projects to do so it can experience the thrill of how complete it will feel once these newly imagined tasks are done. But this nature rarely finishes anything it begins because all it really seeks is that sweet temporary vibration that comes with imagining fulfilling times to come. When we finish what we start -- and not take on new projects just to hide from ourselves the trail of our past incomplete actions -- we interrupt the mechanical flow of thought that requires a time to come to create a sense self that will one day be. Our refusal to take part in its dream life helps us to realize the Real Life that is already Timeless.
2. Refuse to Relive or Regret the Past: The thought nature doesn’t limit itself to just looking ahead to derive a sense of itself. This self loves to look backwards too! First, it recollects what once was in the form of an image, then it enters into this imagining to re-live what it has pictured. Now this self feels as real as its own memory. There are two problems with such time trips. This sense of self only lasts as long as the image it maintains. Second, it can only steal so much sensation from this image it recalls, and it must disappear when the memory it identifies with wanes away. Drop these time trips. The True Now never fades and grounding ourselves therein gives us a gate to the Timeless.
3. Refuse to Rush: All forms of painful rushing around are an attempt to reach an imagined sanctuary that exists only within our mind as a time to come. These safe harbors -- where we picture ourselves at rest, relieved of hurry -- are creations of our pressurized wish to escape some unwanted time that we feel somehow trapped within. Each time we run to arrive at these mental mirages we not only fail to see through their illusion, but we keep alive the illusion of the time self that believes the Peaceful Being it would know is in its future. Your Timeless Self already knows Peace. Choose not to run and ache, but to remain awake to yourself. Refuse the rush that wrecks your chance to realize the Timeless.
4. Seek the Shelter of the Timeless: Morning, noon, and night, find ways to remember the Timeless: meditate, practice mindfulness, let go, give thanks, remember yourself and your God, think Higher, embrace nature. Do whatever you can to nourish this last idea: We are visitors in this time-world and only remain its captives to the degree that we remain asleep to our own Timeless nature.
Time stops for us whenever we are made aware of something breath-taking in nature that our normal thoughts are incapable of containing. In effect, for that too brief moment, our usual sense of self is removed from the mechanical movements of our mind and we find ourselves momentarily transported into another kind of Mind altogether. And it is there, within ourselves, in this new stillness, that we realize a Great Truth: In this state of Mind what is open-ended and Timeless is as natural to it as is the closed constraint of doing time natural to our habitual sense of self. But if we are quiet enough in such unique moments we can hear the Timeless say, Won’t you come and join me?
The Life of Learning Foundation - PO Box 10, Merlin, OR 97532 (541) 476-1200 - www.guyfinley.com.
Guy Finley is the best-selling author of a half dozen books on self-transformation. His works, which have sold over a million copies and have been translated into seven languages, are recommended by doctors, ministers, and industry leaders. For information about Guy Finley’s books, booklets, tapes, and helpful on-going study groups call (541) 476-1200 or visit www.guyfinley.com where you can also sign up to receive a free weekly Key Lesson.