Sunday, April 3, 2016

The Event Horizon Effect

It could have been the lack of oxygen at nearly 9500 ft (2900 m)...or it could have been the meditation I'd been doing every morning since my week training with Gurmukh...or it could have been all the writing and thinking I'd been doing for the past 3 months, but some sort of cumulative explosion happened in my brain when I reached Triund, and the world stood still.


Actually, the world has stood still in each and every moment of my experience in India. It would be easy to say time works differently here, but that's not it at all. Time no longer works in my life the way it once did--I simply experience it differently.

A friend wrote me recently about how these past 3 months have flown by. Well, yes, three months have gone by, but they have been so rich and full they feel like they were hardly moving at all as I was experiencing them. Each day would last a lifetime. Each moment would linger in an everlasting event horizon of sorts.


Whether I was practicing yoga as the sun came up over the backwaters of Kerala or listening to live music on a warm tropical night at a beach side shack in Arambol or white water rafting on the Ganges River in Rishikesh or scrambling up the side of a mountain in Dharamsala, I was fully present for each moment--not once living in the past or the future. And because I was so fully present, each experience never really ended.


After hiking for 5 hours of what felt like never ending vertical rocks to Triund, I found myself on a plateau that not only overlooked every village that makes up Dharamsala on one side, but I could turn around and clearly see snow capped Himalayan peaks right in front of me--so close I could almost touch them. And I do know from my past experience of hiking high elevations on a regular basis back when I lived in Yellowstone National Park that breathing thin, clean air can be one of the most magical and exhilarating experiences.


It was then, catching my breath, that I took note of the event horizon effect--standing on the edge of a precipice, witnessing not only that moment, but all my India moments--forever experiencing them as they move further and further away.


Three months, four different states, four different towns--each so incredibly distinct from each other, each surprising me in radically different ways that I could never have dreamed.

How do you experience time? Do you tend to mostly live in the past and future? Or do you take the time to fully experience the present moment? Experiment with time! How does your awareness of how you live in time change how you experience it? I'm so curious about this! Let me know what happens, what you experience!


From mountain climbing to theoretical physics in a single post...didn't something like this happen several posts back? Perhaps a side effect of what happens when time slows down.

In a few days, I will be not only in a whole new town (and by town, I mean big city!), but an entirely new country!

"Kathmandu, I'll soon be seein' you
And your strange bewinderin' time
Will hold me down"
~ (ahem) Cat Stevens

10 comments:

  1. So beautiful! I want to go to Arambol now.
    Time for me is usually measured in anxiety levels or mundane routines. So like if I have to drive a car or do something intense everything speeds up. And only later can I analyze events in probably a more chrologically accurate measure.
    But all new experiences do make me slow down and stop scurrying around. At least for that moment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you :D I think you'd really like Arambol--lots of families with naked children running around on the beach too!

      Thank you for sharing! My last few years in Santa Cruz went by very fast--probably because they were the most intense!

      Delete
    2. Yeah. It's easy to lose track of time here. And not in a good way. Sometimes the routine activities on Pacific Ave are so sad.
      What poverty have you seen? Have there been aggressive panhandlers anywhere?
      .

      Delete
    3. That's so true! I can't believe I lived there for 12 years--it doesn't seem like it should be that long! Of course, it wasn't always bad...just those last few years.

      Not extreme poverty. I haven't been in any big cities or poverty stricken areas. Rishikesh was pretty poor, a lot of beggars there, but not aggressive. Not at all in the south--where I was most folks seemed to be doing alright. And Dharamsala gets cold and is in the mountains so it wasn't much of an issue there either.

      Delete
  2. I love the way you describe what it feels like to be so in the present that you're experiencing the infinite-now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A good read..a good read...nice!! Youre bringing me into yout world while reading this article.cant wait to experience it myself soon..thanks and please continue what youre doing.i just love it..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you :D If you send me an email or leave your email address on here, I can add you to my list so you'll be notified whenever I update the blog :)

      Delete