Episode Transcript
We Americans enjoy a wonderful and powerful way of life, but internally and in relationships we may wish for better. Join me as we look beneath the surface and gain insights to transform every aspect of your life. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare, and this is the Spiritual American. Hello everyone and welcome to the Spiritual American. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare and I'm your host. And today we'll be talking about going beyond time, and I'm gonna play a little game with you all today. I am gonna play the game of proving to you that you are already beyond time. How about that? So we'll start with the ideas and get them started. So the first idea is, what is time? So does time really exist in and of itself? We don't really know. I mean, you could say is the clock time. I've played this game with myself. If you have a clock, let's say you have a hand of a clock, right? And the clock is moving and ticking. If you say, what time is it? It's already past what you said. When the time you said, what time is it? It's already past that time. It's the time when the person tells you what time it is, but as they say it, time has already passed that. As I'm speaking this, and you are hearing it, you, I'm not, I'm speaking it now. Whatever now is, and you are hearing it at a totally different time, maybe a totally different location, but it's still now to you. Sometimes we treat time like it's something that exists independently, but it's really perceived, isn't it? If you have a situation where you're getting really bad news and you're waiting for a call back from the doctor, or you're waiting to hear news of a loved one, something's going on. Time is gonna move very, very slow. Like it's been five minutes, they said they'd call back. They said they'd call back. Like every minute is dragging on. But then if you have, maybe you're playing with your grandchildren or you're doing some music or artwork or something, are you watching a movie or that you really like or something and the time goes by like five minutes. So does time really exist or is it how I'm perceiving how things are changing and moving around me? We use clocks and things because we have to coordinate our activities, right? We need to coordinate our activities. We need to know when I need to have my body in this place, and you have to have your body in this place, and we need to be prepared for this at this time. And this is the reason we're meeting at this time. Time is a necessary, wonderful tool for us so that we can coordinate our experiences physically. But internally, time is not really real. It is perceived. Everything is moving and changing. So here's some of the other things. So what happens in the world? What is happening in time and space, let's say in this world that we live in this three dimensional world of matter that we live in? What is happening? Well, things are moving and changing. So if I go like this and I'm watching my hand, if I go like this, the hand is moving. And I'm watching, but I'm not the hand, right? I'm not moving. I'm watching. If I have some thoughts and feelings and I say to you, I am thinking that, it's raining outside, which it is, and I say, oh, it's, that's a pretty bad storm outside and I'm reporting to you that I am thinking that, oh, I just had the thought about the storm outside. Who's telling you about the thought? The thought is moving or appearing? In front of someone. In front of the self. The self is not moving. So there's movement, but the self is not moving in time. There in time there's movement, there's also change. Things are changing. So things are different from one moment to the next actually. Every moment, you could say every moment or every now is different than the previous moment. I'm sure if some of you out there are spiritual seekers, you have probably heard this before. There's only the only time that exists truly is now, because everything that I'm talking about is already gone. And now I'm still in the now. Still in the now. Still in the now. But what's happening is our attention has been on the world of movement and the world of change so much. That I'm fully invested in that world, that I'm not really aware that I'm the one watching it. I'm still watching everything happening. That's a very powerful thing to understand and realize. In the world of time and space, things are moving and things are changing, like the mind is moving, the body is moving the world, day and night is happening and life is happening. Life you can call it is happening. I am here, I exist. I am participating in the sense that I am here, but am I in time? Am I changing? Am I moving? Something very deep to think about. So when we go beyond time, this is why, I talked about all that. To bring this up. When we go beyond time. We are talking about a lot of times in meditation, you're going beyond time and space. You're going beyond thinking, you're going beyond. If you're somebody like me who was very full of thoughts and very analytical, it's hard to get the thoughts to calm down. So that's why I started off by saying we're already there. So let's see if we can bring my attention to what's already there. I don't need to leave space. I don't need to leave matter. I don't need to not participate. I'm not gonna leave my body. I'm not gonna die. Nothing's bad is gonna happen. But what I'm going to do is I'm gonna separate myself from what is the senses, right? Eyes, the ears, the taste, the movement, feeling. I'm gonna separate myself from all of that. Which is where time and space is. The body is in time and space, and I'm gonna make myself be aware that I am distinct from that. And in that awareness, I am beyond time. And I can be in time, meaning I can be feeling like I'm participating or I can pull my awareness out. I wrote here two words. I wrote, living in time and existing beyond time. And I chose those words on purpose because when we talk about the science of life. I remember growing up in, in biology and learning about animals, life grows, life changes, we're growing potatoes outside and they, you're watching the plant's lifecycle. Even as human beings. Don't we have a life cycle? A life cycle, meaning I have this body, it's going through whatever it's going through, and I am the energy inside. I am the soul that's experiencing and being here. So I'm living. In that sense I'm living so life in time. Um, now I can also have an existence. I'm not. Gone or dead or not alive? I'm still alive. I still exist, but I'm separated from all of this time and space stimulus. What's the benefit of practicing that? We have another name for that. It's called Bodiless Stage. The soul and the body are very clo. The soul cannot function or be alive without the body, right? So. When we practice body less stage, we're basically separating ourselves from the instrument that helps us be in time and space. And why would I do that? Why would I want to do that? Why would I want to know that I'm distinct from everything in time and space, from matter, from this body even? Why would I want to know that? If you were in front of me, I would ask you to answer that question. Why do you think I would want to know that? How many times a day are we reacting to what's going on in time and space? Reacting to the body, reacting to others, reacting to circumstances, reacting to our memories, reacting to our mind. What percentage of the day is spent resisting, reacting, being upset, feeling impatient, feeling irritated about what's going on inside myself and outside myself. When we practice this going beyond time or going beyond movement, going beyond this life that we're living here in time and space, when we go beyond that, meaning that I'm separating from the senses, I'm not using the senses, I'm just being still in that experience, I am proving to myself that I am alive without it. And what does that do? You've heard me say this before. If you're watching all the episodes, it begins to calm down my fearful state. All these extra thinking we have judgments, reactions, emotions, it's all fear based. There's a disturbance in the, in the self, in the energy field of the self. There's a disturbance, there's a misunderstanding. I think I can die. I could die at any time. Something's gonna go wrong. They don't love me. They don't care about me. I've created a world inside myself where my survival depends on what's going on out here. So think about that for a minute. How many of you have gone through a situation where you felt like you were gonna die because something happened or you really felt the weight of the situation, like you felt helpless and hopeless, or there was no way out, you didn't know what to do, confused. You really felt it, something happened and you, it brought you into a state of confusion. That's reacting to what's going on. So when I practice this bodiless stage, when I practice going beyond time, I'm literally having an experience of being immune to that. I live outside of that system. I'm alive outside of that system. I exist whether I have a body or don't. I still exist. I was thinking of this example where there's wild flowers that come every year, and they come at a certain time. I live in Florida, they come at a certain time and they're beautiful every spring, certain time, and then they go away and that's it. How do they know when to come? And where do they go and how come they come back. If they died, how come they come back? The soul is kind of like that. We don't really go away. It's that. And again, I said this in the other episode, I'm not really gonna talk about what happens when the body dies or whatever. I feel, my feeling in my heart is that every soul has an opportunity there to create whatever context and belief system they have around that. Like, what happens when this body dies? Where am I gonna go? You all have the freedom to create that for yourself. What I mean is if I'm sitting still and I separate from my senses, I'm not dead. I can experience what it feels like to be apart from all that, distinct from all of that, and it proves to me that maybe I'm not gonna die if I don't get the job. Maybe my life isn't over if somebody doesn't validate me. Maybe I can set a boundary, maybe I can. It starts to empower the soul in a very subtle and powerful way. So let's practice this right now. So sitting quietly relax your body. You can close your eyes, or you can look at me and look at the, imagine a little star in the center of the forehead, the sparkling star, the point of light here. Or keep your eyes closed, relax the body. Bring your attention to the center of the forehead, and imagine a tiny point of light sparkling star in the center of the forehead. As you're doing this, listen to the silence. There's music playing, but I want you to listen. Find the silence inside yourself and listen to it. Bring your attention to it. Look at the star, and listen to the silence inside yourself. Now we're going to use visualization here for this exercise. So now I want you to close your eyes and imagine that I, the little point of light am leaving this body. You're not really leaving the body. We're just visualizing I'm leaving this body and I'm floating up through the ceiling. I'm floating up through the sky. My body is down there, perfectly safe, perfectly fine. I'm up in the sky. I'm going through the atmosphere, up, up, up, up, up. Little point of light flying up into space past the sun, moon, and stars. Further and further. I feel more and more stillness inside as I continue to float up, up, up, up and out. And finally, I leave the physical universe and enter this beautiful world of light. And as I enter this world of light, I slowly come. To a place where I become still, I am still, I am peace. I exist. Let these words create a feeling in your being. I am still the point of light suspended in this unlimited world of light. I am still, I am peace. I am silent. I the soul. I am peace. I am still. I am silent. Just listen to the silence. Let the stillness and the silence and the peace permeate your being. I am the point of light absolutely still and safe and peaceful. I. Take a gentle breath in and exhale now. And one more gentle breath in. And exhale, begin to prepare to leave the world of light. Gently feel yourself coming back into the physical universe of movement, and you're traveling back through the physical universe, back through the sun, moon, and stars back towards earth. Towards the area of the globe that your body is, and you're floating gently back till you reach your house, go into the house and back into the center of the forehead. Just be still there for one moment. Reorient myself back. Okay, now prepare myself to come back to waking awareness, move my fingers and toes a little bit. Move around a little bit, bring my energy forward, and now we're back. That is practicing bodiless stage. Going beyond time. This is something that everyone can practice. This does not require a degree in theology. It does not require many, many years of meditation practice. Practice. It helps everything. It's a fundamental support for the soul to return home, to return to the state of awareness where it is free and peaceful and still, and knowing it's alive and okay. So I will leave it there. I hope that you play this back and practice and get some experiences, feel some experiences, and see how it can help in the rest of the day. So I will leave it there. Remember, our slogan is Heal, Empower, and Serve. And until next time, take care.
