This is the first in a series of excerpts from How To Rule Your World From The Inside Out: The Art Of Inner Leadership.
Time: Sequence, Order, Rhythm, Unfolding
Time is a dimension of physical reality. It also has a place in energetic reality and subtle energy realms, but its relationship with subtle energy realms is a complex one. Primarily, time is a dimension of physical reality. We measure it, we live within its constraints. It shapes our lives in so many ways.
How we spend our time is often a function of how sovereign we are in our own space. We experience time’s passage in our bodies, which are attuned to natural rhythms of night and day, to the rhythm of the moon and the tides, the seasons and the cycles of the year. It’s also involved in the natural processes, the biological processes of aging.
We see the results of time when we look at ourselves in the mirror or when we look at the people we love. Time creates sequence, order, patterns, structure, and it’s also intimately involved with the processes of creation, birth and manifestation. Similarly it’s involved with dissolution, entropy and destruction. Time is about birth and death.
But in those non-physical dimensions in which our extended soul has its being, time doesn’t exist in the same way that it does in physical reality. In the subtle energy realms, past, present and future interact with each other in a complex ecology in which they shape and are shaped by each other in a variety of ways. The implications of this are both practical, in the sense that you can do things with them, and they’re profound.
So, at the unconditioned end of the spectrum of being, you can enter into other dimensions of consciousness in which you can bend and flex and play with time. Here you can experience a sequence of events that might require ten years of ordinary time to unfold, and you can travel through it in ten minutes of clock time. You can play with these dimensions of flexible time and clock time in all kinds of ways.
You can learn a new language, or develop skills in engineering, paint with all the skill and genius of Picasso, or play the cello like Pablo Casals. You can invent new processes and products, all in a fraction of the time it would take you to do these things in clock time. There are techniques and methodologies for working with time in this way, which are beyond the scope of this class.
On the other hand, here in the concrete, physical end of the continuum of your being, your body is always in present time. Your mind can project out into the past or the future. You can be thinking about that great meal you ate last week or the meeting that you’re dreading that will happen tomorrow, but your body cannot follow you there. It can’t follow you into the past or the future.
So when you mentally travel into the past or into the future, you disconnect from your body, you leave your body.
Your body will generally react to this by feeling abandoned and scared.
When you’re ruminating about the past, you may find yourself feeling sluggish, depressed or lethargic. When you’re off in the future, your body will likely get frightened or overwhelmed because it can’t follow you into the unknown. Being in the present moment brings your soul and your body-two major elements of your Presence-together.
Presence gives you access to all of the qualities of your soul and to all of the powers and energy of your body at one time, so the present moment is a hugely powerful place to be. Since your body is always in present time, tuning into your body and your senses will bring you into the present moment quickly and reliably.