Time Keeps On Slippin’

Some folks keep time by the sun, others by the moon. Still others follow the seasons and qualities of each day. I think Buddhists may not worry so much about time as it is only a contrived measurement of something immeasurable. What is time anyway?  The ancient Greeks had two ways to view time: Chronos, or linear time, and Kairos, the quality of a time. 

Linear time is so contrived that we have to fudge the way we measure it. We recently experienced a leap day in February where we try to make up for lost time. Where did it go? Daylight savings time; does it really save time? Is standard time really standard? These observations could go on and on…

As I experience the passing of ‘time’ as a human aging, I notice that the moment is always more important than measuring the time it took to get here or there. If I become preoccupied by assessing any particular duration, I am not actually anywhere in time—my mind is just ensnared by ideas of past and future.

When Buddha woke up, he stepped out of time and all artificial measuring devices. His mind settled into the vast, immeasurable quality of rigpa, pure and total presence—which is always present. Even the word rigpa has no boundary, no denotation that does service to what it designates. There is no ‘it’ to designate.

Oh well, this is a rather trite discussion. I think I will take a time out…