Several years ago I started thinking about time and space with respect to mind and body, a dualistic reference and one that never offered me much comfort.

Then as my body kept feeling the evidence of the passing years and space kept me nailed onto the ongoing, unstoppable present, I realized that I wanted to stop it all.

So one day I had the great and pretty naïve idea of perhaps, perhaps I would be able to stop time or better yet “bend time” as Albert Einstein managed to bend space. So I wrote and wrote and wrote (often non-sense) about time, and the moment, and the year, and the month, and the idea of time as being unreal, something that we humans created in order to keep our experiences and our memories in tack. And then a few years later I was almost convinced that I had discovered a way of elongating the transitory moment to its greatest limits; the only thing I had to do was to be 100% in-the here-and-now. And in that "mental-state" of total engagement,if I was only nowhere else mentally and emotionally than in that very intense here-and-now time would transform itself into TIME and minutes would last for hours/days/months or even years. ! TIME; still, un-fleeting, perpetual!

Nowadays I am over TIME or time. I am more infatuated with space thus I read about physics. And gravity has become my time. And space feels often like a fragile skin that tries to keep up with an unnerving body and super-alert, playful mind.

Still when I think of time, sometimes, I am fearful and scared. My time is limited but space is always here as long as I am, or at least that’s the only way I experience it.

xoxo,

Alice.

time space.jpg — is it change that we fear or the finite time we have on earth?

Dear Alice,

I have to admit when Alice first proposed Time and Space as a theme for us to write about, I was a bit lost. Lost because I didn't really know what to write about. Time and space are not a subject I've dwellded upon much. But I see now how much Alice is intrigued and has been intrigued by it as I read her post today. But after reading it I have all these questions. Alice, when you say; Time what do you mean? And how can you stop or bend time just by writing about it? Why are we so consumed with time? Is time aging for you? Does time remind us of our own finality? Of our metamorphosis to the next level of our being? From youth to adulthood, to old and finally to death? When did we start treating time as the ultimate enemy? Is our ultimate battle against time or against change? Where does change fit in all of this? Time eventually brings on change. Doesn't it ? Are we resisting change? Change of our bodies, our minds, our state? Our comfort? Our circumstances? Why do we always perceive change as bringer of negativity? I don't know anyone who is jumping with joy in the face of change. Change brings the unknown, and the unknown is not neutral for us, the unknown is very often scary. It is the darkness, rarely the light. When did we decide that the unknown is not beautiful and magic but destroyer of beautiful? Is it because we have lost faith in everything? In everything but ourselves? If we cannot see something or control it, we fear it? The only thing we trust today is ourself, no one else and nothing else. So naturally nothing out there that we are not doing ourselves for ourselves can be good for us. Nothing out there also means space. The great big expanse that keeps on expanding. What space do we finite beings occupy ? Are we even felt by space, is it even aware of our existence on it’s body ?

xx

Salander.

Dearest Salander,

So many questions!!! Well… where should I start? Let me say that I am not sure if I would be able to answer most or any of them but I’ll try.

When I talk/think about time, I am referring to the “active” type or “positive” type of time, the time within one changes/evolves. I believe that a person during her/his brief existence (as a human) would want to evolve/change. In fact, for me, the more I change/evolve the better it is. So this “positive/active” passage of time doesn’t scare me. On the contrary, that is the most fulfilling state and the one that gives me the greatest pleasure. But this time (my time in other words) is limited and that I don’t like. Mortality or current life expectancy is my problem.

And since I cannot alter my mortal nature in its physical level, I thought why not try to change the way my mind perceives/experiences time.

So when I mentioned (in the previous post) the phrase “bent time” I am referring to the ability of the mind perceiving time in a “non-usual-normal-way.”

After a lot of thinking/practicing/writing/researching/focusing/meditating, I was capable of reaching a “non-usual” “non-normal” way of experiencing time. How that happened for me? By being fixed 100% on the present moment, which actually “occupies” the present space (“here”) too. That doesn’t necessarily mean that if you or any other person do the same will be able to reach that state I am describing here because I know that each one of us (or each mind, to be accurate) requires different “handling” and finding that different handling is a tricky task and one that must be achieved individually.

Furthermore, nowadays, we all know that it’s a very difficult for a mind (like mine or most minds existing in the current time) to forget past and future even for a short period of time. In other words, for a mind to be totally concentrated on what it’s happening at a given moment in time-space is hard enough but it’s even harder for that mind (or a person) to be immersed in that experience and also grow from that experience. But regardless of that difficulty, I still believe it is possible. A person can train her/his mind daily as she/he can train her/his body! Of course that person needs to remember that the mind has the ability of manipulating itself, thus one needs to continuously keep that in perspective and never forget it. Now, you might question; how one is capable of being always aware of her/his mind’s tricks and at the same time be totally engaged in whatever it’s happening around her/him?

Well, that’s another post all together.

xoxo

Alice

Dear Alice,

yes, I understand what you mean here, I came across a passage in a strange book I am reading that I thought might interest you and also be relevant here:

"For those who have gained knowledge of the nature of time, a few years - even a few days, a minute - can be an eternity. For those sleepwalking through reality, time exists only to be wasted - as they too will be wasted, in their turn."

You are talking about gaining this knowledge of time so we can extend a minute or even a second to eternity by being completely present in the present moment, fully engrossed in the moment without any distractions and need to control time. It's amazing that in our society we ourselves created this Time that we seem to be running out of. We put the clock there and the hours and the weeks and the days and the seconds, we decided to box ourselves within a constraint of an 8am to 6pm wall and find ourselves trying to push the walls further to achieve more things in that box to give ourselves a sense of achievement, an illusion of false achievement in an illusion of false walls. And yet as we all struggle and complain and despair we never question the system that is there, the one we built as if the system was made by God, but, of course, it was not. It is not!

Why can't we change the system so it fits better with out humanness, with our internal clocks instead of the clocks on our walls.? Reform people! From time to time must we not reform? Adjust with the times and with the new knowledge we gain as time goes on? Why do we remain stuck? Why do we just wait for the inevitable implosion that will bring many chaos with it?

xx

Salander.

Dear Salander,

“Just remember: for a mind, time is not linear. It has never been. That’s why you’ve been in mine long before our first kiss.”

In September of 1990 I arrived in the US with a suitcase filled with some clothes, a few books, a couple of pictures and a vinyl record of Beethoven’s Fur Elise. Also I kept inside my left jacket pocket a piece of paper with the above phrase. On the cover of the vinyl record the word Elise was crossed out, and my name was written next to it. In a parenthesis the donor of the gift (that was also the author of the above phrase) had written: “Beethoven was one of the greatest composers of all times but his prophetic skills were minuscule.”

At the time, I was convinced (or better said youth and the blindness of love had convinced me) that the mind is not linear, perception of time is untouchable. But the heart is, it is because the heart is like space, it gets old and bitten by the passage of time. The heart gets worn out like clothes and music records which in the end go out of fashion or tune. On the other hand, the mind is like time; intangible, volatile and unmarked by the passage of time, its synaptic connections like the air still exist long after a heart’s last beat.

Of course all the above now sound naive, crazy and totally illogical but don’t forget that those ideas/thoughts were conceived under love’s authority thus pardon the nonsense.

I think now it’s the right time to move on to LOVE -:)!

What do you think?

xx

Alice.

Dear Alice

You are obviously going to have to explain more about this mystery person who writes lovely messages like these, and also what he meant when he said Beethoven’s prophetic skills were minuscule ! Also please write more about the second paragraph on your text, why is love linear?

xx

Salander

Dear Alice,

What a surprise, I seem to want to come back again and again to Time! I say this because yesterday was Saturday and as all Saturdays and weekends we had the choice of waking up late, going our for brunch and be lazy for a few hours then go watch a movie and before we know it, it’s evening and we are sitting on the couch in front of Netflix having anxiety about how quickly the day passed and how much closer we are now to the inevitable Monday looming around the corner. So I decided instead after our usual brunch and lazying around for a few hours that we should go back home and read our books. Because reading books actually has the magical effect of slowing time down. It is pretty funny actually how true that is. Something about reading and/or writing creates like a bubble around you where everything quiets down, slows down, and cuts you off from the exterior world of velocity. Suddenly you feel the minutes passing and not just the hours. When you peak your head up after a few pages of reading, the hand on the clock has only moved a few inches as if in slow motion. The day is longer or at least feels a lot longer. The evening doesn’t rush at you like the Pamplona bull rush in Spain but gently caresses you like a beautiful sunset over the Atlas mountains. It allows your mind to expand and have space to wander, to dream and explore crazy or strange ideas, like this one. Something that you could never experience when you have occupied all the seconds of the day with one activity or another for the sake of being efficient and master of Time. Because Time has no master. Just slaves. And like all masters if you treat it well and with respect, you will enjoy it better. When you decide you know more than your master and you want to rebel and control it then it shows you it’s real power and robs you of everything.

Anyway I still want to know what Beethoven prophesied to warrant such criticism from your dear friend,

xx

Salander.

pablo and miller.jpg — Pablo Neruda and Arthur Miller

Dear Salander,

I think the more information our minds take in, the slower time seems to pass. In other words the more we are focused on something the slower the passage of time and reading is one of those activities that makes time linger with such pleasure and gentleness that no other activity is capable of doing so. First of all when we read, our minds quiet from any other thought or clatter that anxiety creates. Secondly when we read we learn (most times) and fresh information “gets a hold of the moment”. It is as if we have a very engaging conversation between ourselves and the author of the book; a very private and unique experience and one that we initiate every time we pick a book in our hands. Reading is magical in that respect but for me it is not only because it slows times but because it initiates that part of the brain that has to do with creativity. When I read my mind gets quiet and as soon as this happens then my creativity begins to wake up. Within only a 1/2 hour of reading, creative ideas start to appear almost from nowhere and the world (physical and mental) feels limitless. If there is freedom in this world, it begins within that space of creativity and that creativity initiates from the moment a person engages in reading. Thus reading is so much powerful than we think. It slows time and gives us the power to create within that endless magical moments.

And here is a poem by Pablo Neruda that reminds me of that feeling of quietness I experience each time I am reading something really good:

“Keeping Quiet”

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would not look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

—

So long, love,

Alice.

Time & Space