Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.
– Benjamin Franklin
“I have only just a minute, only sixty seconds in it
Forced upon me, can’t refuse it
Did not seek it, did not choose it,
But it is up to me to use it,
I must suffer if I loose it,
Only just a tiny minute,
But ETERNITY is in it!”
-Unknown
Kabir – The couplet
कच्छी काया मन अथिर, थिर थिर काम करत ।
ज्यों ज्यों नर निधदक फिरे , त्यों त्यों काल हसत ॥
transliterated:
Kacchhi kaaya man athir, thir thir kaam karat|
Jyon jyon nar nidhadak phire, tyon tyon kaal hasat||
Translation:
The body is like an unbaked pot, and restless is the mind (in it)|
This man is action-less faced by worldly fears, while inexorable time watches and chuckles||
My understanding:
Time – a one way street, with no looking back, and moving at just one pace – one inevitable step after another. No break, no pause, not even a stop to breathe.
And I, the traveller, in ignorance, have made a art of the ability to ignore, postpone, and even deny the existence of time (except as an abstract thought for later consideration at an appropriate time?).
While time watches on, and smiles at my stupidity, I claim mastery over my existence, which only time owns.
So I need to stop, perish this folly, and fully accept that this physical life is temporal, and that I have already burned through a considerable portion of it in the pursuit of ephemerals. Let me now focus on understanding its purpose, meaning and teachings, so that I am ready for what comes after. For each phase of existence is but a preparatory school for what is to come next.