Had a great conversion on Christmas Day with a dear friend. He talked about an insight he had about the nature of time. It struck a chord in me and inspired a new photo haiku. A short essay letter is below the photo.
Aloha Friend
Very nice talking with you. I sure hope your phone plan doesn’t have a minutes per month limit. I learned lots of stuff talking to you. But one was to listen more deeply, the pause before responding and open to awakened mind before speaking. I was almost going to go doctrinaire Buddhist and warn you about the dangers of nihilism, but you got there on your own. I am so there on your insight into time. Whatever the inspiration, that is the conditioned conceptual nature of time. For Buddhists the ultimate truth is that reality is timeless – no direction, no time. Linearity is a concept, a habit of perception. And there really is just now. The dharma text I am reading now “Magic Dance” by Thinley Norbu says :
“Ordinary mind is always divided by time … obstructed by substance time … Those who remain in clear space sky mind with all elements in equanimity can see all time and space because it is open and unobstructed. They do not have direction or time because they are neither inside substance or outside substance … with practice … all our time habit phenomena ultimately become one time within spaceless space. ”
The Buddhist teaching on emptiness is not about saying that apparent phenomena are nonexistent, just that they are not ultimately as they appear. Same for time. So yes, nothing matters in the sense that no-thing is ultimately substantially existent, unchanging and solid. Yet the energy behind the arising of that no-thing is beyond words wondrous and suffused with infinite compassion and loving kindness. In no-thing everything, all interconnectedly, timelessly one.
That thought inspired a photo haiku. When to look for whales at Makahuena Point. No whales. But coming back to my care the clouds were rolling in over the peak of Haupu. The circle of blue sky bursting through the clouds caught my eye. Not quite polished but a start. May your new year be blessed with wellness, laughter, insight.
