of the essence

"Time is but a stream I go a-fishing in." 

    -- Henry David Thoreau

I'm reading lama surya das's new book, Buddha Standard Time: Awakening to the Infinite Possibilities of Now, and loving it. 


    "For Eons people have been grappling with the concept of time. From Sophocles to Ben Franklin to Einstein to Mick Jagger, the wisdom has been passed down to us: Time is the stuff life is made of. Time is money. Time is of the essence. Time flies. Time is relative. Time is on my side. Time is a cruel thief... We measure time. We lose time. We kill time. We are strapped for time."


As a parent, I tend to set myself up to struggle with time even though there's no rational reason for it. I find myself rushing my children to activities or trying to squeeze additional tasks into small windows of time. It's actually quite crazy.


As the Pharaoh Akhenaton wrote in the fourteenth century BCE, "He who neglects the present moment throws away all he has." This is something we all need to remember... we can't afford not to learn this lesson. As lama surya das puts it: "It's now or never, as always"


It's always now. Not earlier, not later, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but right now.


We have a timeless nature. Learn how to tap into that nature. Buddhism for me is the practice of living fully and authentically... now.