Writings on psychological time

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Understanding time and memory

 

Can you use time as a means to the timeless? That is, through a wrong means can the right end be achieved? Surely, the right means must be employed for the right end because the means and the end are one.

The most significant insight one gets through the teachings of J Krishnamurti is understanding the nature of time. In my previous article Reading the Book of Life we ended with the last chapter of The Book of Life being the chapter on time, and with the question, “Can time end?”

Of course we are not talking here of the ending of chronological time which is a fact, but psychological time, which is not a fact. Apart from understanding the difference between chronological and psychological time, in this article, we shall also be looking into how time is memory and how the process of time and memory plays out in our lives creating psychological becoming. And finally we shall answer the question on how can we put an end to the process of psychological time.

Before we go into this whole question of time, we need to ask why we need to inquire into the nature of time. We are all seeking happiness and freedom in our lives in our own ways. We have invented a thousand ways or perhaps distractions to do so. But have we asked whether freedom and happiness can be obtained within the net of time? Krishnamurti :

“It seems to me that one of the most important questions to discuss and find out the significance of is that of time. The lives of most of us are rather sluggish – like still waters, they are dull, dreary, ugly, and insipid – and some of us, realizing this, bury ourselves in political, social, or religious activities, and thereby we think we can enrich our lives. But surely, such action is not enrichment because our lives are still empty; though we may talk about political reform, yet our minds and hearts continue to be dull. We may be very active socially or may dedicate our lives to religion, yet the meaning of virtue is still a matter of ideas, of mere ideation. So, do what we may, we find our lives to be dull; they are without much significance, for mere action without understanding does not bring about enrichment or freedom.”

If one has inquired sufficiently enough, has read the Book of Life till it’s last chapter, one reaches the understanding  that it is only the timeless that holds true happiness and freedom. Krishnamurti :

“I think the enrichment, the beauty and significance of that which is timeless, of that which is true, can be experienced only when we understand the whole process of time. After all, we are seeking, each in his own way, a sense of happiness, of enrichment. Surely, a life that has significance, the riches of true happiness, is not of time. Like love, such a life is timeless;”

The first confusion we need to sort out regarding  time is the distinction between chronological time and psychological time.

Krishnamurti :

“It is interesting to realize that our lives are mostly spent in time – time, not in the sense of chronological sequence, of minutes, hours, days, and years, but in the sense of psychological memory. We live by time, we are the result of time. Our minds are the product of many yesterdays, and the present is merely the passage of the past to the future. So, our minds, our activities, our beings, are founded on time; without time we cannot think because thought is the result of time, thought is the product of many yesterdays, and there is no thought without memory. Memory is time, for there are two kinds of time – the chronological and the psychological. There is time as yesterday by the watch and as yesterday by memory. You cannot reject chronological time, which would be absurd – then you would miss your train. But is there really any time at all apart from chronological time? Obviously, there is time as yesterday, but is there time as the mind thinks of it? That is, is there time apart from the mind? Surely, time, psychological time, is the product of the mind. Without the foundation of thought there is no time – time merely being memory as yesterday in conjunction with today, which molds tomorrow. That is, memory of yesterday’s experience in response to the present is creating the future – which is still the process of thought, a path of the mind.”

In this paragraph, Krishnamurti makes a significant observation. He conflates four entities – time, thought, mind and memory. Or we may say that mind is nothing but  thinking as a process of memory operating as time. This understanding is of paramount importance because this shows that mind, through memory is always engaged in the process of acquisition through thinking. Without the operation of time as memory there would be no additive process, no acquisition. As long as memory operates, there is a constant drive to acquisition or becoming more. But truly creative moments are those which are not mere mechanical repetitions of the past or memory. They are creative because they are new, they are happening for the first time and the last time. They are happening for the last time implies that there is no recording of a creative experience. Which means the operation of memory is totally absent. 

:Krishnamurti 

“So, the thought process brings about psychological progress in time, but is it real, as real as chronological time? And can we use that time which is of the mind as a means of understanding the eternal, the timeless? Because, as I said, happiness is not of yesterday, happiness is not the product of time, happiness is always in the present, a timeless state. I do not know if you have noticed that when you have ecstasy, a creative joy, a series of bright clouds surrounded by dark clouds, in that moment there is no time – there is only the immediate present. But the mind, coming in after the experiencing in the present, remembers and wishes to continue it, gathering more and more of itself, thereby creating time. So, time is created by the ‘more’; time is acquisition, and time is also detachment, which is still an acquisition of the mind. Therefore, merely disciplining the mind in time, conditioning thought within the framework of time, which is memory, surely does not reveal that which is timeless.”

This makes it evident that any process which uses time as memory entails psychological becoming – a movement in time from one state to another – and such a process cannot enter the timeless. There are areas where the accumulative process of time and memory are helpful like if I have to study how to design buildings or other technological matters. But the problem begins when the mind starts using memory in psychological matters like becoming a better person or becoming a happier person or for finding a reality called God. So, the question is “Can a process of time find the timeless?”

Krishnamurti :

“So, there is chronological time, and there is the time of the mind, the time which is mind itself, and we are always confusing these two issues. Obviously, chronological time is confused with the psychological, with the psyche of one’s being; and with that chronological mentality we try to become, we try to achieve. So, this whole process of becoming is of time, and one must surely inquire if there really is such a thing as becoming – becoming in the sense of finding reality, God, happiness. Can you use time as a means to the timeless? That is, through a wrong means can the right end be achieved? Surely, the right means must be employed for the right end because the means and the end are one. When we try to find the timeless in terms of becoming – which implies disciplining, conditioning, rejecting, accepting, acquiring, and denying, all of which involves time – we are using the wrong means for the right end; therefore, our means will produce a wrong end. As long as you are using the wrong means, which is time, to find the timeless, the timeless is not; for time is not the means to the timeless. Therefore, to find the timeless, to realize that which is eternal, time must stop – which means the whole process of thinking must come to an end; and, if you examine it really closely, widely, and intelligently, it is not as difficult as it appears. Because, there are moments when the mind is absolutely still, not put together, but still of itself. Surely, there is a difference between a mind that is made still and a mind that is still. But those moments of stillness are mere remembrances, and remembrances become the time element which prevents the further experiencing of those moments.”

Now having realized that any process of time cannot reach the timeless, what do we do? Of course, the answer is implicit in the question itself and the answer has been provided by Krishnamurti itself – Time Must Stop or The Whole Process of Thinking Must Come to an End. This begs the next question, how can we make time stop? If we have followed the argument closely, we instantly see that time is memory. So, to end time, one has to end memory. As Krishnamurti says, memory is nothing but unfinished experiences, experiences of the past that have not played themselves out completely :Krishnamurti 

“So, as I said, for thought to come to an end and for the timeless to be, you must understand memory – for without memory, there is no thought, without memory, there is no time. Memory is merely incomplete experience – for that which you experience fully, completely, is without any response, and in that state there is no memory. At the moment when you are experiencing something, there is no memory, there is no experiencer apart from the experienced, there is neither the observer nor the observed – there is only a state of experiencing in which time is not. Time comes in only when experiencing has become a memory, and most of you are living on the memory of yesterday’s experiencing, either your own or that of your guru, and so on and on. Therefore, if we understand this psychological functioning of memory, which springs from chronological action, we cannot confuse the two.”

So we have moved from understanding of time to understanding memory. If memory comes to an end, thought comes to an end and so does psychological time. The action of memory as thought, is born of time and perpetrates time. So the action of memory has to cease effortlessly. This would happen when one realizes this entire chain of bondage through time and simultaneously stops putting any form of effort or will in any direction of psychological becoming. When one stops acting from memory and instead starts becoming effortlessly aware of the process of memory right down to the deepest levels, memory empties itself. Krishnamurti :

“We must see the whole problem of time without apprehension and without a desire to continue, because most of us desire to continue, and it is this continuity that must come to an end. Continuity is merely time, and continuity cannot lead to the timeless. To understand time is to understand memory, and to understand memory is to become aware of our relationship to all things – to nature, to people, to property, and to ideas. Relationship reveals the process of memory, and the understanding of that process is self-knowledge. Without understanding the process of the self, at whatever level that self is placed, you cannot be free of memory, and therefore you are not free of time, and hence the timeless is not.”

The insight Krishnamurti offers here is that the process of memory can be understood only in relationship to all things and people. According to me this is a very important point because we are psychologically conditioned to believe that spirituality is a lone endeavour. The kind of isolation that is bred by schools of spirituality is entirely misplaced. It leads to escapism and most often to delusions relating to one’s spiritual “attainments”.

It is only through relationships that one get’s to learn one’s processes of memory/conditionings. Once psychological time as memory ends, the timeless reveals itself. The timeless cannot be attained. Only the process of psychological time has to come to an end.

 

                                                    By Anurag Jain

 

 

All quotes of J Krishnamurti are from : Eight Talk in Poona, October 17th, 1948 http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=296&chid=4626&w=negative thinking

 

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LETTING GO OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME BY ECKHART TOLLE

 

Learn to use time in the practical aspects of your life — we may call this “clock time” — but immediately return to present-moment awareness when those practical matters have been dealt with. In this way, there will be no buildup of “psychological time,” which is identification with the past and continuous compulsive projection into the future. Clock time is not just making an appointment or planning a trip. It includes learning from the past so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes over and over. Setting goals and working toward them. Predicting the future by means of patterns and laws, physical, mathematical and so on, learned from the past and taking appropriate action on the basis of our predictions. But even here, within the sphere of practical living, where we cannot do without reference to past and future, the present moment remains the essential factor:

Any lesson from the past becomes relevant and is applied now. Any planning as well as working toward achieving a particular goal is done now. The enlightened person’s main focus of attention is always the Now, but they are still peripherally aware of time. In other words, they continue to use clock time but are free of psychological time. Be alert as you practice this so that you do not unwittingly transform clock time into psychological time.

For example, if you made a mistake in the past and learn from it now, you are using clock time. On the other hand, if you dwell on it mentally, and self-criticism, remorse, or guilt come up, then you are making the mistake into “me” and “mine”: You make it part of your sense of self, and it has become psychological time, which is always linked to a false sense of identity. Nonforgiveness necessarily implies a heavy burden of psychological time. If you set yourself a goal and work toward it, you are using clock time. You are aware of where you want to go, but you honor and give your fullest attention to the step that you are taking at this moment. If you then become excessively focused on the goal, perhaps because you are seeking happiness, fulfillment, or a more complete sense of self in it, the Now is no longer honored.

It becomes reduced to a mere stepping stone to the future, with no intrinsic value. Clock time then turns into psychological time. Your life’s journey is no longer an adventure, just an obsessive need to arrive, to attain, to “make it.” You no longer see or smell the flowers by the wayside either, nor are you aware of the beauty and the miracle of life that unfolds all around you when you are present in the Now.

I can see the supreme importance of the Now, but I cannot quite go along with you when you say that time is a complete illusion.

When I say “time is an illusion,” my intention is not to make a philosophical statement. I am just reminding you of a simple fact — a fact so obvious that you may find it hard to grasp and may even find it meaningless — but once fully realized, it can cut like a sword through all the mind-created layers of complexity and “problems.” Let me say it again: the present moment is all you ever have. There is never a time when your life is not “this moment.” Is this not a fact?

THE INSANITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME

You will not have any doubt that psychological time is a mental disease if you look at its collective manifestations. They occur, for example, in the form of ideologies such as communism, national socialism or any nationalism, or rigid religious belief systems, which operate under the implicit assumption that the highest good lies in the future and that therefore the end justifies the means. The end is an idea, a point in the mind-projected future, when salvation in whatever form — happiness, fulfillment, equality, liberation, and so on — will be attained. Not infrequently, the means of getting there are the enslavement, torture, and murder of people in the present. For example, it is estimated that as many as fifty million people were murdered to further the cause of communism, to bring about a “better world” in Russia, China, and other countries.2 This is a chilling example of how belief in a future heaven creates a present hell. Can there be any doubt that psychological time is a serious and dangerous mental illness?

How does this mind pattern operate in your life? Are you always trying to get somewhere other than where you are? Is most of your doing just a means to an end? Is fulfillment always just around the corner or confined to short-lived pleasures, such as sex, food, drink, drugs, or thrills and excitement? Are you always focused on becoming, achieving, and attaining, or alternatively chasing some new thrill or pleasure? Do you believe that if you acquire more things you will become more fulfilled, good enough, or psychologically complete? Are you waiting for a man or woman to give meaning to your life? In the normal, mind-identified or unenlightened state of consciousness, the power and infinite creative potential that lie concealed in the Now are completely obscured by psychological time. Your lifethen loses its vibrancy, its freshness, its sense of wonder. The old patterns of thought, emotion, behavior, reaction, and desire are acted out in endless repeat performances, a script in your mind that gives you an identity of sorts but distorts or covers up the reality of the Now. The mind then creates an obsession with the future as an escape from the unsatisfactory present.

All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence. Most people find it difficult to believe that a state of consciousness totally free of all negativity is possible. And yet this is the liberated state to which all spiritual teachings point. It is the promise of salvation, not in an illusory future but right here and now.

You may find it hard to recognize that time is the cause of your suffering or your problems. You believe that they are caused by specific situations in your life, and seen from a conventional viewpoint, this is true. But until you have dealt with the basic problem-making dysfunction of the mind — its attachment to past and future and denial of the Now — problems are actually interchangeable. If all your problems or perceived causes of suffering or unhappiness were miraculously removed for you today, but you had not become more present, more conscious, you would soon find yourself with a similar set of problems or causes of suffering, like a shadow that follows you wherever you go.

Ultimately, there is only one problem: the time-bound mind itself. I cannot believe that I could ever reach a point where I am completely free of my problems. You are right. You can never reach that point because you are at that point now. There is no salvation in time. You cannot be free in the future. Presence is the key to freedom, so you can only be free now.

[ref]Tolle, Eckhart (2009-03-25). The Power of Now (Letting Go of Psychological time). New World Library. Kindle Edition.[/ref]

Edited April 15, 2018 by Faceless

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Here are a few great short writings I have found on psychological time?

Edited April 15, 2018 by Faceless