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It is interesting how 5
minutes in clock time can be of such varying lengths. The 5
minutes spent
in WH practice seem to extend much longer, each second more fully
realized. You actually live longer those 5 minutes. Then
back to
reading my textbook, and 5 hours zips by quickly - all of a sudden the
sun is
setting again. The interesting aspect of this practice is that
when
present with the WH, whether formally or informally, there is more in
each
moment. That time is longer, richer, fuller. Once when
asked to
define relativity, Einstein said that you could take a man and have him
place
his hand on a hot stove for a minute and he would think an hour had
passed,
then take the same man and let him talk to a pretty girl for an hour
and he
would think only a minute had passed. What does this dissociation
mean? Perhaps the most radical suggestion is that the concept of
time
itself is fundamentally flawed. So where does that leave
us? It
seems to leave no "us" at all - no becoming, no starting, no
ending. And yet we are.
This week has been filled with stress and anxiety for upcoming board
exams and
plans for the summer that have had to be worked, altered, re-worked,
and
altered again. "There's not enough time for this shit!" my mind
pouts. And then the notion of time is suspended, held up for
contemplation of its reality rather than simply accepted and
assumed.
Witnessing all of the pressure that I place on myself has been
unpleasant, but
highly informative. Rock hitting bone. The WH has been a
wonderfully
useful tool for constantly opening up new options, allowing analysis of
the
fundamental assumptions that rarely go challenged in our daily
existence.
It brings the background of life into the foreground.