{"id":67,"date":"2008-08-19T20:28:35","date_gmt":"2008-08-20T04:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erniethayer.com\/2008\/08\/19\/67\/the-collapse-of-time\/"},"modified":"2009-04-01T20:44:58","modified_gmt":"2009-04-02T03:44:58","slug":"the-collapse-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erniethayer.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/19\/67\/the-collapse-of-time\/","title":{"rendered":"The Collapse of Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hello all you wonderful souls,<\/p>\n<p>This month&#8217;s retreat in B.C. has been settling in me, starting with discussions in the car on the way home with Holly &#038; Maria. \u00a0Whoo boy!<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The weekend was, in part, an attempt to describe my most recent understandings in a way that doesn&#8217;t sound woo-woo or inaccessible: \u00a0that\u00a0human beings\u00a0are essentially awareness which can see the thinking self with no agenda whatsoever. \u00a0Then the identity moves out of the small, self-concerned &#8220;me&#8221; and there&#8217;s &#8220;no one home&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Before, we thought we had to resist, do something to solve our &#8216;stuff, to become awake, etc. \u00a0Now we see clearly not just the stuff, but the incessant &#8220;me&#8221; who has a relationship to it. \u00a0Is &#8216;stuff&#8217; a problem without &#8220;me&#8221; messing with it?  What problem is loneliness if I don&#8217;t resist it, just let it alone, let it express and do not a thing about it, only hang out with it lovingly, tenderly.  &#8220;Loneliness&#8221;  becomes loving tenderness.<\/p>\n<p>When there is only direct perception of &#8220;me&#8221; (who resists EVERYTHING), with no attempt to get rid of it, time collapses. \u00a0The future is irrelevant because I will\u00a0no longer\u00a0use time to solve my problems.  The only conflict has been between &#8220;me&#8221; and &#8220;my stuff&#8221;. \u00a0 Without &#8220;me&#8221;, there&#8217;s only peace, and that loving, curious intelligence. \u00a0 Then change occurs on its own.  Many bravely put this on display for us during the recent retreat.  Wow.<\/p>\n<p>For me, the recognition of the fact that we are essentially awake stillness itself has been profound.  At first I felt &#8217;empty&#8217; and somewhat lost, though at peace.  Eventually &#8217;empty&#8217; became the blessed fact it is.  There is nothing and no one, only light shining.  Not an experience.  A fact.  This was scary to see because of the arrogance it seemed to entail.  How could I think I was THAT?  But it is so &#8211; it&#8217;s true of me and it&#8217;s true of you.  So there&#8217;s nobody to feel arrogant or fear it.  We are life itself in human form witnessing life, and realizing this changes us absolutely.  This is our home and our reason to be here.  It&#8217;s our genuine nature as humans, not the tortured and distorted existence we&#8217;ve been living.  This awareness is free from any tether, depends on nothing and needs nothing to be different.  And by it&#8217;s nature it loves unabashedly.  Which means, when we realize what we truly are, that WE are free, depend on nothing, need nothing to change, and love unabashedly.  This sure ain&#8217;t  something &#8220;Ernie&#8221; could do!  But when Ernie&#8217;s not living the life, there is light, ease, freedom, beauty, and joy.  And intelligence in motion.  It sees what&#8217;s true and responds instantly and unfettered by any demand for security.  <\/p>\n<p>This intelligence can lead a life, even on earth where we live in a body, work, build skill in the world, love people and engage with the world.  None of this is driven by need, but only by love.  Nothing&#8217;s urgent.  It doesn&#8217;t really matter how anything turns out, who loves me or how much money I have or how healthy I am.  <\/p>\n<p>Can you believe we are waking up to this!?  As the Hopi elders remind us, &#8216;We are the people we have been waiting for.&#8217;  <\/p>\n<p>Welcome home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello all you wonderful souls, This month&#8217;s retreat in B.C. has been settling in me, starting with discussions in the car on the way home with Holly &#038; Maria. \u00a0Whoo boy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erniethayer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erniethayer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erniethayer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erniethayer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erniethayer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/erniethayer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88,"href":"https:\/\/erniethayer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erniethayer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erniethayer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erniethayer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}