Evolution of Consciusness(Post 18)-Time(2)

Psychological Time and Becoming

In the last post we mentioned about Physical and Psychological time and said

Physical time flows from Past to Future- Clock or Calendar time.

But, psychological time flows the other way, that is from Future to Past, in

 the sequence of Intention, Action and Realization .

It is obvious; this sequence is necessary and indispensable in any plan of action.

 From mundane acts like getting up from the chair, picking up an object to bigger

projects, the psyche follows the  sequence of intention, action and realization.

Let us go through this with an imaginary situation.

A poor man INTENDS to become rich, takes some ACTIONS to RELAIZE his aim.

Scenario -1

Say the poor man is in a kind of hurry, mentally he is unable to stay poor.

 He feels ‘I can not remain poor’, and start longing for the ‘tomorrows’ where he is ‘Rich’.

This mental longing and craving, psychologically creates a contradiction between ‘What 

is’ (Being Poor) and ‘What should be’ (Being Rich).

Actually, ‘Being Poor’ and ‘Being Rich’ are different beings or states, there is no 

inherent contradiction between them. 

Contradiction arises because both ‘Being Poor’ and ‘Being Rich’ are to be the ‘Present 

Being’ of the Poor-Man at the same time.

Giving rise to famous maxims ‘I am not I’ or ‘I am more than I’

 He begins to struggle psychologically because he is pushing himself into something which he is not.

In other words, he is psychologically trying to become something what he is not.        

               

It is impossible to either reconcile or end this struggle because

‘Being Poor’ is a FACT and ‘Being Rich’ is an IDEA (as of now).

It takes real physical time and events for IDEA to become FACT.

Where as the Psychological Time – Intention, Action and Realization is only a mental 

projection of plan or idea and unreal, as concrete TIME it doesn’t exist.

But ‘Poor Man’ in desperation to feel rich applies non-existent psychological time 

(Craving and longing) to ‘become’ or ‘feel’ rich.

It will end in frustration and failure.

Since there is no real Psychological Time, there is no Psychological becoming.

It is an illusion.

Psychologically one can be only what he is, there is no becoming.

That is one can be either ‘Angry’ or ‘Not Angry’, both can not be present.

One can clearly see it by testing it

 When one is ‘Angry’, If he/she TRIES to become ‘Non-Angry’, they will struggle.

Trying is applying non-existent time.

Since Anger is a FACT and Non-Anger is an IDEA.

It takes real time and events to become ‘Non-Angry’.

But one can end ‘Anger’ without becoming, that we will test later.

Now let us consider scenario ii

Poor Man is not in any hurry to feel rich,

He inwardly psychologically stays with the FACT that ‘He is Poor’, outwardly he

continues with the relevant actions to become rich.

In this scenario, there is no psychological becoming or craving and so there is no

psychological struggle or frustration.

He might face difficulties in the physical plane but psychologically he will remain

Undisturbed and clear headed.

And in course of time he may realize his aim.

Now,

Let us apply this scenario to ‘Anger’

One is ‘Angry’, but he/she is not trying to become ‘Non-Angry’.

Instead they stay with ‘Anger’ and also look at their ‘Anger’ totally without bias or 

Motive to become non-angry. 

What would happen?

 ‘Anger’ vanishes.

What happened here is, when the ‘I’ reflects and looks at the ‘Anger’ totally,

 the ‘I’ which sustains anger can not be  present.

According to Gurdjieff’s system one has multiple ‘I’s.