on passing comments, different kinds of evil and time

Dear Beings of Courage and Love, Years ago I was visiting a friend in Switzerland and they had another older maybe wiser guest staying at the same time and one afternoon as she walked past me while I was doing or playing something on my phone she casually said ‘oh look Arhiman stealing your time’ !! Of course my first response was something classic like ‘ whatever’ or ‘oh’ but it’s something that stuck with me and, like a good cheese or wine, has become richer with age. Lets unwrap this gift a little to see why now I find this initially seeming obnoxious comment useful. The first part of the sentence specifically refers to a nuanced conversation in Anthroposophy around different types of necessary evil. Perhaps if you receive my emails ‘Ahriman’ is not a totally new concept to you, but for those of you scratching your head wondering who or what I am talking about, very shortly, Ahriman is the force of evil that solidifies and deadens, often connected to materialism, technology and a hardening of any living substance. In Anthroposophy the conversation around evil is more complex than evil just being the opposite of good. The more dynamic picture of evil is that there are contrary forces that take you too far out of your body (luciferic), forces that make you too dense (ahrimanic) and forces that rob you of your capacity for self-reflection (asuric). Even though these forces are decisively adverse to the human being they are also necessary formitative forces very similar to what is described in vedic traditions through the guanas; tamas, rajas and satvas, all formative forces in living things. This conversation around a dynamic model of evil and good is fascinating and a topic I will return to but for right now lets keep unwrapping the gift at hand! now that we know Ahriman is connected to machines and technology as well as this hardening aspect in the human being maybe you will start to notice when you spend a moment at your computer or phone and you look up and hours have past or anytime a machine or an app wants you to respond by entering a code, swiping or answering yes or no, see how often does machines and technology grab your attention and take up your time? Let’s uncover the second part of the sentence, she said Ahriman is stealing your time, not time itself. The second part of her statement refers to the sacredness of your lifetime. What is your time? Some ancient yogic traditions believe that we are each gifted a certain number of breaths for this life. Knowing this we can understand some of the inspirations behind kumbaka pranayama exercises where you hold your breath in or out longer than usual! Even if you don’t connect a number of breaths to your time on earth the concept is the same, our time here is destined to end, nobody gets out alive. Which then begs the question how are you spending your time? In our material money centric world we forget sometimes that our time is also an asset, something that we have the free will to invest, it’s never just selling. Even if you ‘give’ or sell your time to a job, the karma, the consequences and the experience still are very much yours. Beyond 401k and pensions getting older is seeing how your time investments are panning out, was the time spent worth the return? It would be nice if it were just a question of am I having a good time or not, or do I like what I am doing or not, but really the investigations go deeper than that and must be answered with ever deepening degrees of honesty. Is what I am doing contributing to what I want to experience in the future? Is what I am doing going to be a gift in the future for someone else or something they will be burdened with or have to clean up? Clearly the question of how to use your time touches on the big one like ‘who do i marry’, or ’should i have children’ but it also reach down into the minutia of daily life. For instance is the entertainment I am engaging with relaxing or refreshing me or am I just escaping feeling or avoiding family? Is this bath self care or habit, necessary or indulgent? The bath, watching a show or being on your phone isn’t the question, clearly it can be good or bad or both, but again and again the real question is how are you spending your time and are you awake to what you are choosing? The question of how am I spending my time are not always easily answered and require moment to moment specific reflection instead of hard rules. Asking questions like how am I spending my time or why am i here are the kind of inquiries that return you to yourself and illuminate your way, ultimately become a core part of any spiritual practice. These where some of the gifts that a simple passing, little bit annoying comment from long ago has matured to become a treasure in my present, reminding me and waking me to how I want to spend my time here on earth and that my time is so valuable there are forces that want to steal it! Our time and attention can be a gift to the world and all that is required is your wakeful loving participation! Come meet me on the mat and we’ll share some our precious lifetime together. with lots of love, Rachel

Veijo Rönkkönen Sculpture Garden (finland) http://www.patsaspuisto.net/#english