JP my good friend and local philosopher first introduced me to this idea when he told me about two different greek words for time:Chronos refers to chronological or sequential time.
Karios refers to the time in between, a moment when something happens. The appointed time, the crucial time, God's time.
Chronos is quantitate, I am writing this at 4:23pm CST. Karios is qualitative, is now the right time? Being aware of this dimension of time is how you know that the season is about to change.
When I read Shakespeare's sonnet 18 of "eternal lines to time" the picture above began to form in my mind.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
I have since become interested in Eckhart Tolle's teachings about the Power of Now which restates this truth and also provides insight into how we can be more aware and present in the moment, in the now. One of the barriers to being fully present in the pull of the ego whose existence is based on past memories and future planning, it lives in the temporal plane and is born and will die. His later book A New Earth looks deeper into the structure of the ego and how by "being in the now" is the key to transcending the ego and living with greater presence.
My struggle comes from not being in the moment. I spend a great deal of time in thought, imagining better futures and a fair amount of time worrying about past actions. Right now am I not fully in the present, not fully focused on creating and writing this blog - I am aware that I am going out tonight, have to get ready to bike to work in the morning and balance my checkbook. The awareness of not being in the moment is, however, a good thing, it can shine the light of consciousness (which flows from the now) onto the temporal musings of my ego!
I have experienced the now, in times of stillness, in times of celebration and dancing and in times of creative flow. The now is not static, it is a dynamic moment, where all energy flows from, all past and future events converge, all experience happens and where everyone can be one with the source.
Saying "Yes" to the present moment is a foundational concept I will returning to in future posts as I continue my struggle to be authentic. Here is a link to a great page on Wikipedia on Kariosand here is a link to learn more about Eckart Tolle.
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