Of Time and the Timeless

OF TIME AND THE TIMELESS uncovers the limitations of our temporal conditioning, which the author explores in the light of a timeless perception that is firmly rooted in the present. The resulting narrative is both intimate and universal, making it accessible to a wide selection of readers who are interested in exploring the essential relationship between inner freedom and the perceptive life. Exploring the significance of causality and change in our lives is never the exclusive province of science or philosophy. When we are done with all the theories, how do we perceive change both within ourselves and in the world around us? A history of spiritual currents in the 20th century and what these reveals about the metaphysics of change itself. This richly illustrated narrative explores the essential relationship between inner freedom and the perceptive life. It is both a spiritual history of the twentieth century, and a personal exploration of the nature of timeless transformation. It includes a study of the life and work of Annie Besant, an examination of the role of Theosophy in the spiritual history of the twentieth century, and the importance of J. Krishnamurti as a dramatic figure of emergent change. Adapted selections from the work: Human affairs can appear insignificant when set against the awesome depth of the night sky. Yet the cosmic drama we see unfolding in the birth and death of stars and the distant evolution of countless worlds is deeply rooted within us. In an age distinguished as much by fear as by the extraordinary advance of science and technology, a momentous conjunction of the irreconcilable has now settled on human affairs. We reach for the stars and turn our backs on those who can barely scratch a living. Haunted by dark forecasts of environmental catastrophe, few would doubt that the last waves of progressive optimism that followed in the wake of the Industrial Revolution are all but spent in the harsh realities of today's world. Rich or poor or just getting by, we are haunted by a largely subconscious background of fear and insecurity, which has so far proved resistant to the rational constraints we attempt to impose on them. If we personally feel that we have lost, never had, or only dreamt of what is truly sacred in life, then the awesome difficulties of our time serve well to remind us how hidebound we have become to a profane and materialistic concept of living. For those who retain the privilege of choice, life has become a sophisticated confusion of needs and wants. Their capacity to assimilate or indeed initiate change has led to many unforeseen and dangerous consequences for the planet as a whole. A burgeoning culture of holistic values may as yet have little significance for a world caught up in a confusion of conflicting viewpoints. Yet however life has shaped us, to live wholly and perceptively leads one to the threshold of a fertile mystery locked in consciousness itself, a place where concepts of self, time and causality can take on an entirely new meaning.