Tense and complicated

Time dilation, officially, is the observed difference of elapsed time between two points moving relative to each other, or differently situated from nearby gravitational masses. A will see B’s clock ticking at a slower rate than his. This effect is down to the nature of space-time described by the theory of relativity.

Time dilation, unofficially, is a perception of the rate of the passage of time, and doesn’t require movement or gravity. When we’re absorbed in something, time either dilates or contracts – because we don’t notice it. Martial arts often talk about, and train to get into The Zone, a.k.a. the moment. They do this because when you are not worried about past or future, but are entirely absorbed in the present, you react better to the dynamics of a situation – almost as if your focus is buying you more time to react.

I wonder if this time dilation effect is why so many philosophies focus on The Moment and being present in it? If you are in the present – no worries about past or future – then the world is simple. The simpler things are, the more they purport to help you stay in the moment, which in turn simplifies things. (This is circular at best – if you’re only concerned with the present, then your needs and wants are lessened and simplified as when you’re travelling).

As children, we get absorbed in things so easily, we don’t really notice time passing. As adults, that purity of focus is rarer, and we notice time more. We clock-watch our days away in boring jobs, ticking off lists of things we have to, rather than want to, do. We stretch our seconds ever thinner, and think ever more of things we should have done or need to plan for. No wonder we get so tense, when our lives become so complicated.

In my attempts to find the simple life, maybe I’m missing the point – maybe what I should be looking for the Present life – forgetting the past and future tenses, and living in the moment, however twee and New Age that sounds. When I practise the Buddhist 3 Arrivals, the world seems to slow, the blur of noise and colours and whirlign shapes resovling into something comprehensible.

I’m starting to think it’s not a coincidence after all, that in English “now” and “here” are both covered by the word “present”.