Time and place and transience
Part 3: What is it we’re really searching for?
So, what is it that gives being in a time and place – and whatever we do in that situation – significance?
Is, in fact, transience a problem? Does it matter that an event has happened and is now over? Is it demeaned in any way by not being permanent? In fact, how can any experience be permanent? Our lives have to be a constant flux and flow of different experiences in order for things to happen to us. Otherwise we become like sentient statues always experiencing the same view. However, this being so, what of permanent significance is being “deposited” in me by this flow of experience?
Let’s suppose I have one of those “treasured memories” moments – a “peak experience” that I will always remember – say for example, a family celebration for an important achievement. The celebration was wonderful, but now it is over. While it was in progress, I could not have felt more fulfilled, and as I look back on it now, it still fills me with joy and a deep sense of satisfaction. But it is now in the past. What is my ongoing relationship to that event? Or am I asking a foolish question? Yes, it was great, but it’s finished; my attention now must be on the next event in my life – even though that is much more mundane. However, my entire life is just a series of “one thing after another”, and one day it will come to an end and I will be gone. The problem is somewhat exacerbated by the fact that we can’t help hypothesising how we will feel after we are dead. We perhaps imagine ourselves looking at our dead body which has just collapsed and want to continue our process of acting in relation to that event. When, in reality (if there is no life after death) our consciousness has simply ceased – cut off in mid-sentence, like watching a film and a sudden power cut makes the screen go blank. We are so used to being alive that we imagine ourselves thinking, “What the heck’s going on here then!?” When in reality, all thinking has stopped – for us, anyway.
Nevertheless, it is not unfair for us to reflect now, while we still have the ability to think, what our life means, and taking up the imaginary standing point of looking down on our recently ended life is not a bad viewpoint. We can imagine ourselves thinking, “Hmn, that’s a shame; I was enjoying life. Now what on earth does that all mean?”. The harsh, but perhaps truthful answer is: “Nothing, mate!”. However, we hope there’s more to say than this. What might that be?
Spiritual Devotion 