Loading...For a long time I’ve thought a lot about time. Usually about how I don’t have enough of it, how I wish I had more of it, how I can use what I have most efficiently, how I can possibly get done what I have to do and …
And, over the past couple of years, I’ve begun to think more about how all that (on one level) is nonsense and just creates anxiety and stress.
My change began when someone (urgently) recommended me to read Paul Loomans’ book Time Surfing (easily available to purchase online). I wasn’t sure about it at first, just lookin’ at the cover. But oh my god. I read it three times and it started a revolution in my brain, that continues and has made the most enormous difference, not so much in how I fill my days, hours, and minutes (in my case, time-obsessive guy that I am, and seconds…) but about my emotional approach and attitude toward what I do and the time I have to do it.
For one thing, when you think about it – or at least when I do – it’s ridiculous
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I’ve heard it said that it isn’t about what you do or the achievements you accrue, but who you share the journey with.
Sounds good to me.
On your podcast, you mentioned people saying Jesus was John the Baptist brought back to life as one example of 1st century Jews believing in reincarnation. Given how recently John had died, wouldn’t it be more likely that they thought that the End of Times had already begun and that he had been raised from the dead for God’s final judgement?
Interesting idea….
Merovingian: Yes, of course, who has time? Who has time? But then if we do not ever take time, how can we ever have time?
Not exactly sure how to interpret that, but I wish I would have come up with it.
On a Megan Lewis podcast you said it would be great if we could get more time from those who have too much time. So true! I’m thinking of those with long prison sentences.
My experience has been that I feel the most in touch with who I really am and what I really want when I practice mindfulness and just allow myself to “be” in the present moment. I think we get confused and feel stuck in our lives when we allow ourselves to get trapped in our thoughts and interior dialogue.
The levers of control over life are given to us when we are at our weakest, and greatly diminish thereafter. At the equilibrium point of doing as much as possible to achieve as many things as possible, it sometimes becomes necessary to step back and re-evaluate how we better solve the problem of meaning (metaphysical and semantic) by using behaviors and mindsets (practical and almost syntactic). Essentially: life keeps us from analyzing this issue like you said, but similarly becoming too invested in it can produce unskillfulness that prevents us from actually living, as you also said.
While standing at my desk, I found myself immersed in your thought-provoking article, “Time and the Meaning of Life.” Meanwhile, I was savoring a comforting bowl of oats, enriched with the tangy burst of blueberries and a drizzle of pure maple syrup from the Canadian east coast—a moment that seemed, ironically, timeless.
Your reflections led me to pause and wonder: does time, as we perceive it, exist at all in the vast expanse of the universe, beyond the confines of our human awareness? And if it does, what might “time” signify in that grander context?
So, as I relish this peaceful morning with my oats and blueberries, I’m left pondering—what time might it be, cosmically speaking, in this very moment?
Time to put a bit of honey on those oats and blueberries!
I’d like to understand more what you mean by “ancient ethics” and recommendations on references to “very intuitive ancient writers”. As a retired person, my recent self-revelation is how much I don’t understand about, well, everything. That led me to your blog and on-line courses, which has sent me down a rabbit hole. An amazing place this rabbit hole. I have been continually surprised at the number of times I’ve come across references to ancient philosophy. Soooo – I want to know more, and how those people affected the content of the Old Testament (and by extension, the New Testament). How does the ancient thinking impact today (which by my younger self would have been “who cares”). I’m not afraid of research, I have the “time” 🙂 I just need an arrow to point me to a start. I’m not sure I have a good handle on what ethics or morals are (more than just “following rules”). How in the ancient world would people have the time to develop these outstanding complex systems? Thank you in advance. And thank you for leading me to this rabbit hole.
I’m speaking mainly of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, etc. they had no effect on the Hebrew writers in Israel, but lots on later Jewish and Christian thinkers, including writers of the NT. I’ll be talking about all this in my book, but if you want some basic information, there are tons of books on ancient philosophy and good websites as well.
Since this is a biblical blog, I think I kick the ball into the “gridiron”, I’ve can reflec on the phrase “time no longer” in Revelation 10, from a book that, for me has increasingly revealed itself to be a profound symbol of spiritual growth and personal transformation. I see the Book of Revelation not as a prediction of external events but as a deeply symbolic guide for awakening. The words “time no longer” points to a “pivotal” moment in this/our spiritual journey—a point where the limitations of linear time dissolve, opening the door to,,,,,,,,,,another door,,,or another “now”, and in this concept into another presence and fulfillment of life.
For me at least, this way of understanding the 3 pluss 1 dimentions of our experience, has reshaped how I think about time. Revelation, to me, suggests a kind of freedom from the weight of past and I think even regrets and the uncertainties of the future. For my conceptual framework, the true growth happens in the present. Time, as we commonly experience it, isn’t an unchanging force but more like a filter we use to make sense of existence. Again, to force it into a biblical frame, the Revelation’s call to transcend time challenges us to rethink our relationship with it, treating time as something we move with rather than against.
Modern discoveries/scientists/modern physical comfirm science and insights reflecting the same ideas. These scientific and scholarly ideas suggest that time may be less rigid and more subjective than we assume. As an example, and talking from myself, profound moments of insight often feel timeless, merging past, present, and future into a single, meaningful now. I have come to the point that I think that “time no longer” points to a level of our own potentiality in our own essence in full correspondance with modern scholarship within physics and phsycology, which also align with ancient wisdom. Maybe the wisdom lies into stopping wrestling with time and instead embrace the present as the very space where transformation “naturally” unfold.
First of all, thanks for teaching me a new word! I had to look up solipsistic! I can’t wait to use it in a sentence.
Secondly, I started listening to Alex O’Connor’s podcast (Within Reason) after you were a guest. He had a couple evangelicals as guests recently, and they had a very cordial conversation. However, I had lots of problems with what the evangelicals said on many points. One of them was demanding that agnostics and atheists articulate an objective purpose in life. In their view, the only objective purpose is to serve and know God.
What would your response be to that challenge? Your post today seems full of purpose and meaning, so I don’t understand why it’s necessary to have an “objective” purpose (whatever that means). Isn’t life itself meaningful and purposeful enough? Your thoughts on this? Thanks!
My first response would be for them to define “objective” and explain why their view of the ultimate purpose is “objective.” Among other things I’d like to know what criteria they to establish an objetive purpose. How can purposes be objective. Don’t they come from and drive individual humans? Do we have some ways of knowing which things we strive for are “objective”? Is this some kind of mathmatical equation?
(part one)
I am a living self-conscious processor of Information, in a Universe where everything is Information and Energy, and where, if there is a purpose, it could be characterised as “Information becoming conscious through experience”.
Space enables seperation of matter, and Time enables seperation of events.
I was born to suffer through experience. The “I” that I am aware of is the observer of information from the past and present (internal and external) experience of the real world that my body suffers. My mind synthesises a simulation of reality based on this input, which enables me to survive and thrive on this planet.
However, this “I” is but one leaf on a greater ‘tree of experience’ that exists across a landscape of multiple alternate realities that has been growing since my birth. With each potential outcome of any given event of significance, I branch into alternate realities in a second and third dimension of ‘event-time’.
Debates about Theodicy and any God’s Omnibenevolence are somewhat redundant if every possible event can occur in its’ own reality.
(part 2)
The ‘God’ of the Ontological, Cosmological or Teleological arguments is NOT the ‘interested’, interventionist god of the Abrahamic religions.
The only possible place where ‘absolute truth’ could exist is a realm of complete information (omniscience) and infinite possibilty (omnipotence)- dimensionlessness (omnipresence) and completely conscious.
A scientific contender for such a realm would be the ‘Quantum Foam’, existing as a timeless ‘Singularity of Superposition’. In Spiritual terms, a Supreme Consciousness: an emptiness, a void, outside of Space and Time. ‘Brahman’, ‘God’, ‘Nirvana’, Plato’s perfect forms and Spinoza’s Substance are all conceptual ways of trying to describe the same state.
This is very similar to my own view of God as Ultimate Reality.
This presents us with an interesting set of reflections. A key takeaway for me was the concept of the 3H (Happy, Healthy, Helpful) and how our present should be lived in a way that fosters a better tomorrow. I have been reflecting on time and how to make the most of it recently, so thank you for the book recommendation as well.
Your post brings to mind Stoic Philosophy. Not sure if there is a connection to your thoughts and it has been some time since I last visited Stoicism. I think it a good opportunity to do so again.
I think I’ll start with the epistles of Seneca to Lucilius, the first letter is titled “On Saving Time”. In my own ruminations for meaning maybe I’ll find 42 somewhere in these letters.
I’ll be posting on them in a week or so. But yup, great place to start.
I agree that “to be happy, healthy and helpful” is a very good aim in life. I tended to follow that aim for most of my life, for example I only applied for jobs that would provide job satisfaction, never for jobs I wouldn’t enjoy even if they offered much higher pay.
Personally, what fascinates me the most about time is what modern physics theories tell us about it, and especially Einstein. I’m pretty sure you’ve read about the “Block Universe” and what it entails, namely the fact that space and time are in some (real) sense just out there, and what happened to you while finishing your first book, for example, is coinciding with somebody else’s “now” etc. Also, what really blows my mind is the notion that time itself STOPS at the center of a black hole according to some theoretical physicists! I mean, WTF??! What does THAT mean? I mean, imagine being in a spaceship that went astray and you enter into a black hole, and eventually you hit the “singularity” (whatever that is) – what would that mean? (By the way, by entering into the black hole, you travel through time and not space – what does THAT mean also??!)
In a much more earthly vein, I do fret over missing time due to nonsense, since I agree with Gandalf in that “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us”.
For me, abiding peace and contentment comes from knowing and understanding my values and doing my best to live them. In the noisy confusion of life, it is so easy to become distracted and lose focus.
I have wondered about the concept of “time” as far back as I can remember. I think of it now as something humans had to make up in order to explain impermanence. We can see that things change, and can compare rates of change, but I think that is about as deep as it goes.
(The Buddhists phrase that better).
I’m a happy atheist, because I don’t have to work toward a better afterlife, or worry about a worse one.
I have a little sliver of time in which some matter and energy are configured as me, and I just do the best I can to nudge some of the change in what I think is a favorable direction for my little constellation and the other constellations in my vicinity.
I don’t worry about finding supernatural meaning in life either. Creative activities, ideas, and positive relationships are meaningful to me, so why waste energy asking useless questions about whether some intangible imaginary being thinks I am wrong about that ?
The meaning of life is the harmonious flow of information from the unknown to the known and, after that, the purpose of life is to die.
— from an unknown poet.
Dr. Ehrman,
Have you read “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl? If not, it’s rather short and I highly recommend it. He developed a new therapeutic method called existential psychotherapy.
In his and my own view;
The most important factor in our well-being is purposefulness. Having a sense of purpose will get us through the worst of times. As Nietzsche wrote, and Frankl quotes: ‘He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.’
But I think it’s only the first of 3 pillars required for a fulfilling human life (there are of course numerous exceptions, as our needs vary from one to another), and they are all deeply interwoven in many ways. But if happiness is a braid, these are the 3 strands.
The others:
2.Social connection: what kind of relationships we have with others (or lack thereof) and how they affect us.
3.Material provisions: if we are lacking 3, the first two can compensate to an extent. If we have 3 in great abundance, without 1 our lives will feel eventually feel aimless, and without 2 we will endure loneliness; perhaps in either case even more intensely, if we feel our wealth should entitle us to those.
Interesting reflection, Bart! I’ll have to pick up the book. I’ve been recently reading, 4000 weeks and Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman and it seems to ring similar themes. I like Burkeman’s observation, via Heidegger, that we don’t get or have time at all–that indeed we ARE time.
Like you, I focus on three things (it’s always threes, isn’t it ;): Relationships (God, family/friends, global community), Work (what do you want to leave behind?), and Health (physical, mental, spiritual). It strikes me that happiness is keeping these three “balls” in the air at once. When one falls out of place, I feel out of whack and need to recenter myself.
I like what Haidt said about happiness in his great book, The Happiness Hypothesis:
“Happiness is not something that you can find, acquire, or achieve directly. You have to get the conditions right and then wait. Some of those conditions are within you, such as coherence among the parts and levels of your personality. Other conditions require relationships to things beyond you…If you get these relationships right, a sense of purpose and meaning will emerge.”
Sarah is reading Meditations for Mortals and thinks it’s flippin’ AMAZING. I read “4000 weeks” and loved it. She read me some bits from Meditations, and I’m thinking about excerpting them on the blog.
Just read this and ordered for Patrick. Want you to read Outlive by Peter Attia. Sarah, too!
Thanks!
A terminally ill person once told me that “time is all we have”.Back then,my own life experience wasn’t long enough to ponder on this,beyond the personal anguish of the speaker,which I intensely empathised with.
As I became older,even as I’m reasonably healthy,my potential remaining life span became daily thought.It lead to a steady divestment of endless items, tasks and preoccupations that I realised had populated my life,monstrously swallowing Time.
What truly matters to me,my own big picture, emerged as a sculpture from a formless block.The musical projects I neglected,the fiction book I wanted to write for at least three decades,giving to others,and perhaps most of all,sharing with and seeing my grandchildren grow to young adulthood.It is possible that in my earlier pursuits I may have neglected my own kids.There is also atonement to be made.
The day to day sorts itself out somehow,but when Time,with a capital T,is understood as Life itself,the life on this Earth,the Time that flows only in one direction,though everything else, which we spend so much “time”on, the type of “time” with a low case t,, seems to come and go,that momentous Time that equals Life focuses one’s mind on the deepest matters, which we sometimes find are those we tended to take for granted.
“the propagation of the ethics of Jesus transformed an important aspect of our moral conscience. It is not that the later followers of Jesus simply retained his ethical views. ”
LAST 2 blogs I didn’t understand at all.
but the statement above deals with the “West”
China & many Asian economies came out of Agrarian economies in the last 50 years, China since 2010 when it became the 2nd largest economy.