time is a crock, life is a dream...

someone in an online forum asked these questions the other day, and I so loved the questions that I thought I'd put them here, with the answers I offered up, off the top of my head.

THE QUESTIONS:
Are there times when the time dissolves?
Have you ever witnessed another of your lives?
Ever had the experience of not knowing what, when, where and who you are?
What is your experience of when the veils come down and what does it look like to you???"

MY RESPONSE:

WOW, what a great line of inquiry. (where do folks come up with these great questions??????)

when I was young, ie, from childhood until, oh, yesterday (grinning) I was convinced that time is a crock.

I've said that since I was about 10 years old, emphatically.

time is a crock.

I used to drive people crazy because I keep all the clocks in my home and on my wrist running at slightly different times (all fast, just degrees of 'how fast' they are is the question) -- I always know what time it is, but I hate the assumed exactness of this contract we've all made with one another, a social consent, about 'time' when for me, fully, I don't ever remembering believing that it exists, at all, in the first place.

totally, I think there are times (grinning again) when time itself dissolves.

when I meditate, for example -- forget it. maybe I was 'out there' (in here) for five minutes, maybe several hours. I really don't know and can't gauge it. so that's pretty much a daily experience for me.

same with when I used to paint and compose music, and poetry. did it take five minutes? seemed like it! what do you MEAN three hours have gone by.....!????!!!!!

I've also noticed, when I was in India, that the days were far longer than days here in America -- I mean, each day stretched into a kind of eternity. things that had happened in the morning literally seemed like they'd transpired a month before, not the same day. most of the time, none of us knew what day of the week it was, let alone the date. days blurred into days and suddenly it would come to my attention that another entire month had gone by.

same with the miracle energy -- it's almost impossible to gauge time when a miracle is happening in front of your eyes, like a manifestation of some object out of nothing. did it take 30 seconds? 2 minutes? there is NO way to know.

time, in those moments, stretches so infinitely that it appears to join the silence of the absolute god energy...........

have I witnessed another of my lives? -- yes.

as to not knowing 'what, when, where and who you are?'

oh, man, I'm takin' the Fifth on this. (it happens all the time.)

my experiences of the veil coming down have been radically different at different times and with different appearances. I think -- from my experience -- there are different layers of 'veil' and when one dissolves for a moment, it's an extraordinary moment.

some experiences -- seeing the light in other people burning so strongly that I no longer perceive their individual faces or human forms. seeing a miracle so intense that the entire room is filled with particles of light. seeing divine forms standing in front of me and recognizing that I, too, am That.

I've seen the veil break away and what's behind it can be terrifying, intoxicating, thrilling, pure love... so many different qualities, in different experiences, at different times.

once I asked Kaleshwar, my teacher, what would happen if I got enlightened, how would I view the life I had already been leading, ie, my past, and all that had transpired, up to that moment.

his answer: "just dreams. it's just dreams. it will all seem like dreams."









(and don't forget: time is a crock. you heard it here, first...!)