LAW OF THREE (70) Time and The Unchanging

LAW OF THREE (70)

TIME AND THE UNCHANGING

Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future

And time future contained in time past

T.S. Elliot, Four Quartets

1 The changing and the unchanging co-exist in our inner experience of life.

2 The unchanging tends to be associated with God in all names and the changing with the outer movements of Creation.

3 Similarly, the unchanging is an attribute of Eternity and the changing, of Time.

4 Our Individual role in the spiritual or transformational way could be considered as playing the part of the reconciling force between God and Cosmos, neither being identified with the unchanging, nor with the changing.  In christian terms: entering the way of transformation into the fullness of Man in Christ.

5 "Just by the very nature of our birth, we are on the spiritual journey." Thomas Keating. From a secular perspective: By the very fact that we enter the world of time, we enter the way of transformation.

6 Time-events provide the friction necessary in the transformation of our being, We suffer every stage of the transformative process in the guise of attachment or detachment to the 'changing' scene,  which culminates in the death of the body or the release from all attachments.

7 Drawing on Thomas Keating´ spiritual journey, the unfolding stages of our experience of time are presented in the model of the four consents: i. Consent to the basic goodness of nature with all its parts. ii. Consent to the full development of our being. iii. Consent to accept the fact of our non-being and diminution of Self. iv. Consent to be transformed.

8 In addition to this model, I would suggest that an even earlier consent takes place: The Consent to be conceived.

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