Don’t Rush to Be On Time - You May Go Nuts!

It was a tiring day at the office and I was as usual sulking about something when I got back home. This had been a terrible day and I had not an iota of energy left in me. So, I helplessly let my heavy eyelids shut and sat in my bed for a while.

I had no clue that this was going to be the moment of a most profound discovery of my life. So, as I had sat there for a couple of mins, I began to drop into a trance-like state. I had been meditating for years, but this moment of no effort and no goal in sight was something I had always missed in my practice.

All of a sudden, I saw myself hovering out of my body and away. Then, there was no body, no me, and darkness everywhere. This was a weird and pretty surreal experience. As I dropped out of my body, all TIME and SPACE disappeared. All physics became nil. Now, you might think I am taking you for a ride, but I am definitely not joking. Every word is true to the letter!

So, as this unexpected encounter deepened I realized one big truth that I had always heard the Gurus speak about but never experienced myself. So, in that moment, it became MY TRUTH. It became a reality for me too now.

I unequivocally and unquestionably realized that “All Time Is An Illusion!”

In this state, there was no question of suffering and pain. Everything related to me was gone. I was empty! With all that said, I urge you to never wish this state upon yourself. Because you can NEVER achieve it. It happens on its own at the right time and occasion of its own choosing. You can’t invoke or pray or meditate yourself into this state.

Anyway, I didn’t wake up from this state. Because there was simply no need to come back and let the mind function at its mediocre standard. I let myself be.

As there was no time, one truth hit me pretty hard: that TIME is my biggest adversary. It’s not my boss, or my “rivals” at work or social circles. But, “time” is the only damn ghost that needs to be cast out and condemned to hell.

OK, let me ask you: what do you think TIME is? Give me a straight answer.

No, the Seiko on the wall is not time, it’s a clock – dead machine. The Rolex on your wrist is NOT time either, it’s, again, a time-telling device. What’s time then?? What’s the essence of it? What is it that you are short on?? What keeps you rushed off your feet and what are you afraid of missing out on?

Alright, let me answer: In that very strange meditative state, I realized that time is nothing but MY BODY. IT’S ME! Because I walked out of my body, there were no THOUGHTS and there was no TIME. “I was and I was not simultaneously.”

In simple terms, as long as you are living, the body is functioning, you will need time to run your errands, earn a livelihood, meet people, work at the job, cover a distance, travel, etc. But the real problem arises when you start registering the time as something that actually exists. You see?

We humans created time so that we can measure our life in terms of day and night, the sun and moon. It’s a tool of measurement. But that’s about it. There’s no real substance to it.

That’s the reason why each culture and tradition celebrates its New Year at different times – because there’s no one universal calendar that aligns with everyone’s definition of time. So, time is a man-made thing, and it needs to be totally wiped out of your psychological system. With time goes thinking and with thinking goes suffering.

So, Time is this Body. And you can’t separate the body from the ticking of the clock. The body gets older as each second passes. That means, when the body dies, all time will end. Isn’t it?

With death, your past, present and future will disappear. All that is left will be nothingness. This is something you can’t imagine because imagination requires use of thought and thought always starts from the body (The “I”) and the body can’t exist in the absence of time. So, it’s a vicious chain – and when it does break, everything breaks and you break free!

Now take a moment with me, sit back, breathe (1…….2…….3) and believe that there’s no time. All you have is now! At first, this will feel incredibly difficult because you’re not ready to accept that whatever you have been taught from early life, “time is money” “don’t waste time” “tomorrow never comes” was all big-time phony-baloney.

However, stick with this truth and question yourself on the actuality of time – past, present, future, do they really exist? – eventually, this truth will dawn on you and you won’t be able to UNSEE it once it does shine.

Further, you might wonder, how will you ever be punctual without time? Or, how will you plan your day? How will you keep track of things?

Well, you know what, you don’t need to keep track of anything in your mind. What do you keep track of anyway? – Who snubbed you yesterday. Who was nice to you last week. How good the weekend was. How bad the office today was. How exciting the coming holiday will be. That’s all your mind wants and keeps a record of, isn’t it?

I say, all of that is THE source of your suffering and needs to be flushed out of your mindset at once. Once, this baggage of time is no more, you are left with PLENTY OF TIME to do whatever you want without the sense of losing anything – without hurry, without anxiety and without the need to “force” patience, because YOU WILL BE FREE and patience will be your natural state.

In addition to that, you will ALWAYS be on time because you can’t be late when there’s no procrastination, you see??

Procrastination comes from thinking and thinking comes from the illusion of time and so on… So, since you would be using time like a tool at your disposal like you use a Vernier caliper to size things up, you would use time to organize your day, and believe me, you will always find yourself overperforming.

You would crush all your deadlines and ultimatums like a breeze. Get things done before they needed to be done. Everything would fall into place and the psychological puzzle would solve itself.

So, when I say, “DO NOT be on time”, I mean to say, “Destroy your mental clocks and be aware and alive right now.” Because you will always be running and gasping to catch that train, meet that deadline, show up on your love date – if you don’t understand what TIME is. You will just go nuts and lose sanity when you try and chase a mirage which is time itself.

People are going nuts because of time, of course. Stress, anxiety, burnout and so many of their species eating away at your willpower, happiness, inner peace, beauty – aren’t they?

Finally, I opened my eyes and I was happy. This realization of time being false has never left me. It never can. Sometimes it gets dull, and I develop patterns of ignorance but then I catch myself out of it again and gain awareness of the now. Life is good!