Resuming Realisation...

So, I think I'm back to this...

How long has it been? Much over a year since my last post... Wow... Doesn't feel that long.

I remember this moment, I was in sixth grade and I think I was almost halfway through it. We may have had some guest over, and we had gone to "Sind Punjab" in Bur Dubai. I remember standing outside eating all the chaat and ice-creams, and telling my sister "You know, time is moving really fast now. Like, I can't believe 6th grade is halfway through. All the years before this were soooo slow."

I wasn't the best student back then... In fact, if one were to look into my learning years (which continue till today), I was a "terrible student" (as defined by our modern education system - which I don't really agree with) until junior school. From 7th grade onwards, however, there was a slight change. I attributed this 'improvement' to the fact that from 7th grade onwards I had different teachers for different subjects. If I was bad in one subject, my 'image' is only ruined in the eyes of that one teacher. I may, however, be great at another subject - where the teacher would, therefore, appreciate my being. But I finished my IGCSE with crappy grades as well. Then came my Bachelors, the phase where I chose where I want to specialise. Marketing, business... I can't believe they needed four years to teach me that stuff. Then my Masters, which was actually "learning" something new... Related, but new... I knew nothing about the sport management industry before I did my masters. 

And now, the PhD -- and everything becomes clear. The whole system has become clear. 

That moment in 6th grade, when I said to my sister that time is suddenly flying by... it never stopped from there on. Time, never slowed down from there on...

The reason was simple -- before 6th grade, the concept of 'time', was learnt and understood by me, but it was only realised around 6th grade. I understood what people meant when they saw a clock and said "quarter past 4" -- but I 'realised' the existence of time only around 6th grade... And this wasn't a conscious realisation, it was to happen eventually, it's all part of the system...

I had a neighbour's kid who, until a few years back, only understood time on the basis of "how many sleeps left"... So, his mother would tell him "27 sleeps to your birthday" and he would understand that he has to sleep 27 more times (at night) before he gets to celebrate this... birth-day? 

Sure, whatever, all he would know would be that this was a day that people gave him gifts.

But really, what is time? It's based on a few concepts from astronomy -- how long it takes for the Earth to do a 360, how long it takes for the moon to appear and disappear, how long it takes for our planet to dance around the fireball until it reaches back to where it started. Time has it's value,  of course. It allows the farmer to know when he should sow a seed and when he can expect the fruit. It lets the sailor know when he should sail and how the ocean may react. But that would have really been the main purpose of time -- we didn't need it for any other reason.

The concept of time was a 'guide'. It gave us an idea of what to expect. 

But, now that we had invented this concept we would inevitably become slaves to it. Now time is a deadline. In most cases we use time as something to keep up to. We're chasing time. A self-made concept, created only as a guide.

It's like if we went to France, paid a tour guide to take us around, and now we are running behind him to keep up... We're not really seeing the city anymore. We're too focused on where the guide is going.

THIS, is exactly what we are going through... Every single day...

That French tour guide, is time. And we have all become so focused on where it is headed that we are missing out on the purpose of this tour... life.

See the birds that fly from one region to another when the weather changes. See the whales that migrate from Australian waters to Antarctica and then back again later in the year. See the ground squirrel that hibernates during winter - breathing only about once every five minutes remaining in a deep sleep. All these animals have some idea of 'time'. Definitely not as detailed in terms of creating calendars and clocks (which we then modify for day-light savings?), but they know when time guides them to move to something else. 

As they notice the changes in things around them, they realise it is time to move to the next phase; to live. And then there is us... As the clock strikes two we go, "Fuck! I was supposed to hand this in half-n-hour ago, and I'm still not done!"

=)

Well, like I said -- I'm back here. Back to this blog, but most of all, back to the understanding of Tao... Now, let's try to realise it too...