Thoughts on TIME
I find myself sitting here today, wondering where the summer went… How did that time go by so fast? And as I prepare for the fall, I am aware that my schedule (things in time) is going to be different than the summer. From my perspective, time is one of our most valuable resources. How we spend our time and what we do with the time we have matters – a lot. It has me contemplating time.
In our first semester of Ayurveda Doctor School, we studied “substances”. We learned about how there are Karana Dravya, causative substances, which are the substances that create other substances, and there are Karya Dravya, created substances. I was fascinated to learn that time, known as kala, is a causative or creation substance.
This really got my brain going – is time a substance? Well, needless to say TIME has turned into one of my brain’s favourite things to think about! I had not really thought about time that way before… I believe my brain just defaulted to thinking about time as being numbers on my iWatch that I need to attend to so I show up on time to appointments.
In Ayurveda a substance is defined as having qualities (gunas) and activities or effects (karmas). I believe we can all agree that time has an effect – we can think of the differences in the times of day (even simply the basics of day and night having their own qualities), times of year (seasons – each with its own qualities!), and even times of life (childhood, adulthood, mature adulthood – defined by a change in the qualities). Ayurveda also discussed the concept of parināma, change over time. This is important with regards to the progression of disease, as well as the healing of disease, as both happen over time. As well as with the practice of Ayurveda, we do things every day to either maintain stability and functions over time, or to effect change over time.
In Yoga, there is a lot of talk about the present moment, which is a point in time. Curiously, it is a repeating point in time… because the next moment becomes the present moment, and so on. Memories (and calendars) are how we organize our present moments in time over time. We also talk about practice – the need and importance of practice. Practice takes time, needs time, and changes and deepens and evolves over time. Those of you who have been practicing a while, consider if your practice is the same now as it was when you started – have things changed over time?
In Vedic Astrology, we are tracking the movement of planets through constellations (signs) over time. Each house represents a time of day. Each type of chart (yes, there’s more than one) represents a point in time. A birth chart represents a pattern for a lifetime. And within the lifetime, there is a favourable time for things to happen, and a time when it is challenging for things to happen.
And when we think about education, another of my favourite things to think about, learning and integration happen over time. You can’t just open a book, read it, and boom! I know it all. It takes time for the learning, practicing, application, integration, and refinement of things. Time is a factor in learning and understanding.
A super big curiosity around time for me is how it FEELS. Time isn’t just a causative substance with effects (karmas), it also has qualities (gunas), and these qualities can be felt. Have you ever had a period of time that went by so fast, like when you’re engaged in a great conversation? Or another that dragged on forever, like being somewhere you don’t want to be? Or have you ever been lost in time, where you have no idea what time it is or how long you’ve been doing what you’ve been doing? This ‘elastic’ quality of time also fascinates me – that it feels different at different times and based on my own state of being. In Ayurveda-speak, time is described as being variable, mobile, subtle, and flowing. It is also continuous, produces change, can be divided (hours, minutes, seconds…), brings things together, and splits things apart.
Isn’t time fascinating? What are you doing with your time? I know I am actively thinking about how I am spending mine!
I would love to hear your thoughts and contemplations on time. Please do share below.
with love, m xo
ps. The whole time I was thinking about what to write for this posting, the first line of the Bangles’ song ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’ has been rolling through my brain… You’re welcome for the ear worm J Hopefully it doesn’t last too long (another time joke – ha!)