A: I wouldn’t worry about it. When you’re done, you’re done. That being said, the ego’s questions and problems are endless, so you can always manufacture more questions and problems for me to answer. Also, the Self is forever expanding, growing, and evolving. So there will be continuous questions and answers. There is no “end”. The “end” is a fabricated concept of the ego. It creates time, and like I said, time can be used as a tool, but eventually, the tool takes over and starts to run the show, leaving stress, anxiety, depression and all sorts of human suffering. Learn to respect time, but live in the moment. Now that’s something to contemplate.
Tag: time
Q: What is the Importance of Time?
A: The importance of time is very much related to your question about the afterlife. Without time, there would be no importance or immediacy to the ego. Just picture this, if you had a job to do, set forth by your boss, but he put no time restraint on it. Many people would not even start the job, they would just let it sit there. In the same way, if our ego does not have something to compare our progress to, it tends to also not get started with a job, undertaking or journey. Herein lies the importance of time. So time is actually very important. However, the ego then because of its dual nature, of seeing thing only one-sided, not both sides or gradations in the middle, sees time and performance as the most important things and either strives for them, gives up, or creates denial to its own progress. One must take the middle ground when dealing with time and performance and see that they are supremely important, however not develop stress and anxiety around them. If you contemplate on these two things, with time and results on one side, and enjoying the present moment on the other side, and bring them to your heart center, a synthesis will occur wherein you respect time and progress but live in the moment, honoring them.
Relaxing the pressure of time
Q: How can we relax the pressure of time?
A: First, one has to realize that most of the pressures of “time” are actually pressures of “the ego”. Time can’t put pressure on you at all. If someone, or even you, tell you that you have to get something done by a certain hour, time of day, or day, this is not time, but someone’s, or your own opinion on what is wanted. A simple technique to help with this is to ask yourself, “Is it true?”
> Is it true I need to pay my bills on time?
> Is it true I need to make dinner by this time?
> Is it true that I need to retire at this age?
> Is it true that I need to be doing such and such with my career by such and such a time?
The ego’s demands are endless. To try and pacify the ego will never work. By its very nature, the ego is a problem generator/solver. It will find a problem in virtually anything, then try and figure out how to fix it.
However, when you ask yourself “Is it true I need to go to the store by such and such a time?” a curious thing happens. All of a sudden, you find all these constrictions of time, all these needs, are actually “wants”. You want to be on time to work to do a good job. You want to retire by a certain age. You want to save this much money by this time. And so on.
Just feel the feeling that you get when you say “I want”, vs. “I need”. The “I need” is a confirmation of the emptiness of the ego. It says “I need this to be happy, to be complete”. “I want” is very different.
It’s natural for us to want things, and when you acknowledge this, you are allowing yourself to be exactly as you are. It is only when “I want” morphs into “I need” that stress develops.
Try this experiment on yourself.
Ask Big Me 