12/04/2024
LIVING IN TIME
It is often said that the present moment is all there is. That the past is gone and the future is not here yet. The intention of this statement is to bring us into the present moment, to be fully aware of what is happening now, rather than thinking about dinner or that stupid thing you said five years ago. More importantly, it emphasizes that anything you want to do can only be done in the present.
But the statement is also misleading. I consider it a sort of linguistic trick: the past “was,” while the future “will be” or “might be,” but only the present “is.” Voila—the only thing that “exists” is the present.
Of course, we live in time, and that being the case, ignoring the past and the future is not a good policy. Our current situation is the result of the past. As the common dictum has it, “We may be done with the past, but the past is not done with us. In fact, it isn’t even past.”
The yoga view is similar. The Yoga Sutra is largely about time, and insists on its reality. As
Sutra 4.12 says, “The past and the future have real existence.” The difference is whether they are currently manifested. In his classical commentary on the Sutra, Vyasa emphasizes that “All the three aspects of a thing are objects of knowledge.” Which in everyday terms is pretty obvious.
The mechanism is called karma. Everything we have ever done or experienced has left its mark—memories in the widest sense—and will affect us in the future. The traditional Indian view is that this did not begin with you, but is the result of a continuity going all the way back to the beginningless beginning of time. It’s the past that has made us what we are.
As for the future, one of my favorite sutras, 2.16, says, “Future pain is to be avoided.” A more literal rendering is “What is to be avoided is suffering that has not yet arrived.” The word is anagatam, meaning “not come.” I think of it like a train. The suffering is on the way. It really exists—if you look down the track you can see it—but since it’s not here yet you can avoid it. Step off the tracks.
The way to avoid the approaching trainwreck is not to deny the pain but to acknowledge all the past hurts (and joys, for that matter,) in a calm manner, and find a way to prevent them from continuing to cause suffering.
We live among joys and sorrows throughout our lives. The pain you suffered and the pain you have caused: that time someone hurt your feelings, what you said in response, that time you betrayed a friend, that person you injured in an auto accident, that thing you failed at. They all happened.
Through awareness and knowledge, yoga is a means to prevent the past from causing future harm. Ultimately, you realize you’re okay.
The good part is that while past pain is the problem, yoga tells us that it is also the solution. It is the accumulation of past experience that can teach us that there is more to us than our experience, that at our core we are free.
Of course this is all just philosophy. Practically speaking, the point is to understand the past and accept it calmly and honestly. And then to work equally calmly and honestly for a good future.
