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Between NOW & Eternity
The Existentialists searched for it but found the cupboard bare when they got there. The search continued with the Nihilists, but nobody lived to tell what they had discovered about it. Buddhists seek it believing that it is ultimately attainable through body and soul disciplines. Yoga is practiced in the hope that it is achievable in the midst of a busy life. Meditation is a doorway to a higher consciousness where it can be found. Praying to a higher authority – or anything out there that can help is hoped to bring us to it. We can spend all of our energies building a safe and comfortable environment where all our needs are met in the hope that we can achieve it. We will organise times to do nothing in order to chill-out in the midst of a driven lifestyle in the hopes of having a brief encounter with it. If none of that works we might resort to drugs or excessive alcohol consumption to achieve a euphoric state outside of time and space where we can forget about it and everything else.
What is ‘it’ that all of these approaches are searching for and why? It is not limited to religious pursuits, philosophical searching, to behaviour that is characterised by rich or poor, Western or Eastern cultures. It has been common to mankind throughout the ages, although it has been known by many different names. It is common to being alive and the desire to make the most of the life we have.
Despite the seductions and drivers of materialistic consumerism, we subconsciously know that there is a secret to be discovered through experiencing ‘it’ to the fullest measure. What is ‘it’ that has remained so illusive for many despite much effort to achieve it? ‘It’ is to be still - to be at peace, to be present to the moment and to know the truth that sets free – to know that we are wonderfully alive and able to savour the NOW moment without distractions.
What is in the space between NOW & Eternity?
For many, if and when the ‘nirvana-paradise’ state is achieved, they discover that it is not necessarily what they were looking for. The enlightenment that may come is not a commodity that can be measured and consumed as hoped, or a packaged static answer that puts to rest the search, but an invitation to travel on a journey of on-going revelations that progressively change our being. Ironically, we can seek after the peace that comes from being still and present to the moment with as much commitment as we take every effort to avoid it. When we are alone, silent, still - it can be a disturbing experience as we are faced with the very things that we have sought to avoid by filling our life with ‘stuff’ and activity. The moment becomes void and disturbing instead of rich and fulfilling. The paradox of our relationship with the Now and Truth are the same – we search for it and run away from it at the same time.
Now is the nearest thing that we can experience of Eternity, but if we are not prepared to embrace eternity then now becomes empty and threatening. Why are we exhorted in the Psalms “to be still and know God”? What if the reason we seek after the ability to be at peace in the moment of NOW is because, deep in our Spiritual DNA, we know that we were created to live in a much more profound state than we have been reduced to by the cultural conditioning around us? Furthermore, what if we were created with all the equipment necessary to live in the reality that unfolds between Now and Eternity?
…and the search goes on…
Exploring the relationship between NOW & Eternity is the overall theme of this project. It embraces several inter-dependent themes considering our position in time and space within an eternal context – the privileges, benefits, responsibilities and challenges of being alive. Everything that we do and think takes place within a time-space continuum and our understanding of that affects our behaviour and our sense of the significance of life itself.
The project asks questions such as – ‘What is Man?’ – What is the relationship between mankind and culture, creation and creativity, and the many ‘gods’ that we serve? What is the purpose of the present? What is our responsibility for the future of the universe? These may seem very abstract notions, but ones which actually affect our everyday behaviour and attitudes to oneself, others and the world around us.
Without an eternal perspective to life that provides an anchor for our ethics, morals and the values that guide us, we are subject to being tossed about by the fashions of supply and demand, pressures of life, and whims of expediency, whilst chasing the rewards of success and fearing failure. Life is a spiritual journey that is travelled through a rugged physical landscape, one that we are responsible and accountable for.
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