Angelas.
4. There is neither time nor space: both are necessary to us only for the understanding of things. And therefore it is an error to think that speculations re^tdvcv'^ %\ax^
whose light has not yet reached us or regarding the state of the sun for millions of years are of any consequence. There is nothing important, nothing worth while in such speculatipns. All these things are idle mental diversions.
5. If life is something beyond time, why is it manifested in time and space? Because it is only in time and space that there can be motion, that is striving towards expansion, illumination, perfection. If there were no space or time, there would be no motion, and therefore no life.
II.
The Spiritual Life of Man is Beyond Time and Space
1. Time exists for the physical life alone. But the spiritual being of man is beyond time. It is beyond time because the activity of the spiritual being of man is only in efforts of the mind. But the effort of the mind is always beyond time, for it is always in the present, and the present is not in time.
2. We cannot picture to ourselves a life after death, nor can we remember a life before birth, because we cannot picture to ourselves anything that is beyond time. Yet we know best of all our life beyond time—^namely our present life.
3. Our soul is thrown into our body where it finds numbers, time and space. Meditating upon these things it calls them nature or necessity, and indeed it cannot think otherwise. Pascal.
4. We say that time is passing. This is wrong. We are passing and not time. As we sail on a river it seems to us as though the shores of the river were moving instead of our boat. Even so it is with time.
5. It is well to remember frequently that our true life
is not the outward physical life which we live here on earth, before our eyes, but that alongside of this life there is within us another life, an inner and spiritual life which has no beginning and no end.
III.
True Life is Only in the Present
1. The ability to remember the past and to imagine the future is given us only in order to enable us, guided by this or that consideration, to decide more correctly our actions in the present, and not to regret the past or build for the future.
2. Man lives only in the present instant. Everything else is either gone or is uncertain of occurring.
Marcus Aurelitis,
3. We worry over the past and spoil our future merely because we pay too little attention to the present. The past is gone, the future is not yet, only the present exists.
4. Our future state will always seem a dream of our present state.
Not the length of life, but its depth is of consequence. The important thing is not the duration of life, but how to live beyond time. And we live beyond time only by an effort towards righteousness. If we live in this manner we raise no question of time. Emerson.
5. "Live for a day—live for an age"—the meaning of this adage is to live as though any moment you await the last hour of your life, and have time to attend only to the most important matters, and at the same time so to live as though you could continue to do without end that which you are doing.
6. Time is back of us, time is ahead of us, but it is not with us. If you dwell on that which had been or on that which will be you will lose sight of the most important thing: living in the present.
7. "A moment is only a moment," man so lightly regards the moment as to let it slip, and yet his whole life is solely in that moment, only in the moment of the present can we make that effort which will take the Kingdom of God by force both within us and beyond us.
8. Not to-morrow, but to-day alone can you overcome evil habits. Confucius.
9. Nothing is of consequence excepting that which we are doing in the present moment.
10. It is well not to give thought to the morrow. To avoid doing so there is only one means: to think unceasingly whether I am fulfilling the task of the present day, hour and moment.
11. When associating with others or when carried away by the thoughts of the past or of the future, it is difficult to realize that your life is right now, in the present moment. But how important and precious it is to remember this. Try to train yourself to do so. Man will avoid much evil if he but train himself to remember that only the present is important in life, that the present alone exists. All else is a dream.
12. The moment you delve tn the past or in the future you have left the present life, and you feel orphaned, hampered and lonely.
13. "How much moral suffering—and all that to die after a few moments. Is it worth while to worry?"
This is untrue. Your life is now. There is no time, the present moment is worth many centuries if in this present moment you live with God. Amiel.
14. They say man is not free because everything he does has its own cause preceding it in time. But man always acts in the present, and the present is beyond time, it is merely the point of contact between the past and the future. Therefore in the moment of the present man is always free.
15. The divine force of life manifests itself only in the present; therefore the activities of the present must have divine characteristics, that is, must be rational and good.
16. A wise man was asked: what is the most important thing? Who is the most important man? And what time of life is the most important?
And the wise man replied: The most important thing in life is to love all people, for therein is the concern of every man's life.
"The most important man is the one with whom you have dealings at the present moment, for you cannot know whether you will ever have dealings with any one else.
"But the most important time is the present, for in that alone a man has power over himself."
IV.
Love is Manifested in the Present Only
1. The paramount thing in life is love. And you cannot love in the past or in the future. You can love only in the present, now, this instant.
2. Only when you are not guided in your actions by the past or by the future, but by the commands of your soul in the present, can you act in full harmony with love.
3. Love is the manifestation of the divine principle for which there can be no time, and therefore love manifests itself only in the present, now, this instaut.
4. Do not think of the future, but endeavor right now to make life joyful to yourself and to others. "Let the morrow take care of itself." This is a great truth. It makes life worth while not to know what is needful for the future. Only one thing is surely needful and is always worth while—to love others at the present moment.
5. To love in general means to do good. This is how we all understand love and cannot understand it otherwise.
And love is not a mere word, but that which we do for the good of others.
If a man decides that he must abstain from the demands of the slightest love manifestation in the present for the sake of some greater love in the future, he only deceives himself and others and loves no one but himself.
There is no love in the future, love can be only in the present. If a man does not do the works of love in the present, there is no love in him.
6. You seek that which is good. But that which is good can be only now. There can be no good in the future, for there is no future. There is only the present.
7. Never postpone a good deed if you can do it today, for death cannot stop to examine whether you have or have not done what you ought. Death waits for no man, waits for nothing. Therefore the most important thing for man is that which he is doing at the present moment.
8. If we only remembered more frequently that lost time cannot be returned, that evil once committed cannot be undone,we would do more good and commit less evil.
9. Do not let us delay being just and compassionate. Do not let us wait, for some extraordinary suffering— either our own or that of other people. Life is short, let us therefore make haste to rejoice the hearts of our сснп-