An Experience In Time: My Paper

An Experience In Time

“If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.” (Hamlet Act V, Scene ii)

Hamlet’s statement passes through so many realms of consciousness that they are impossible to recognize all at once. Hamlet is referring to the concept of time. In order to take on the difficult task of comprehending time one must first take the even more extraordinary task of breaking down time. Time is seen in three forms: time future, time present, and time past. Breaking down these forms individually will help in the understanding of such a fanatical concept. Hopefully, in my contemplation of time I will gain an experience in time.

Time Future:
Time in the future at its most basic element is the symbol of a calendar. It is a tool of measurement that we use to plan our schedule and our activities. Even in its simplicity, time controls our most mundane actions. Every morning we wake to an alarm clock that tells us it’s time to get up and start our day’s activities, which we have planned in advance. Each decision that is made is made with the consideration of time. The act of planning is symbolized in time. This, then, is time future.
The idea of the future is directly connected with time. We decide our work schedule based on our future plans. The process of planning is the process of controlling our time. What is the future if it is not a measurement of time? Simply put, our future is our growing older. When Krishna, in The Bhagavad-Gita says, “I am time grown old,” he is explaining his divinity (pg 103). Krishna’s statement is confusing because of our inability to see time as being old or young or middle aged. Krishna is making a correlation between time and the process of growing old, which is usually thought to be the same thing. By giving himself the name of time, Krishna is showing a control over all things, including aging. Time is consistently placed with the concept of aging. There’s this idea that every second and every minute we grow closer to death. This idea shows the direct correlation between our future and time’s ability to continually progress. This progression gives reasoning to a future. If time did not exist we would not worry about tomorrow.
Take the example of the divine. Krishna tells Arjuna, “even without you, all these warriors arrayed in hostile ranks will cease to exist….They are already killed by me” (Bhagavad-Gita pg 103). To Krishna, time means nothing. The idea of time is useless because it is controlled by him. Even when Arjuna sees ranks of men standing in front of him, Krishna is telling him to realize that they have already died. Arjuna has trouble understanding Krishna’s lesson because of his humanity. Time and its ability to control the future will always be considered by people because we are not the divine and we do not control time’s progression.
Time allows us to appreciate the process of aging. Birthdays celebrate the annual development in our lives each year. There are many things which are brought by the progression of time. There is wisdom, the need for us to learn from our mistakes. Without time’s constant hover, we wouldn’t need to learn or strive to be better. It’s the knowledge that we have a set amount of time to live that makes us correct ourselves and attempt perfection.
There is always that subconscious presence of time future. This is what gives time all its power. Time future is a threat to humanity because of its unpredictability. We are taught to believe that we cannot control time and therefore we willingly make ourselves prisoners to its demands. Hamlet’s phrase, “the readiness is all,” has many different levels of meaning (Hamlet Act V Scene ii). One interpretation is that Hamlet must be ready for the future’s volatility. By not letting the future catch us unaware, we have the ability to, not defeat, but counter time’s fickleness. Hamlet, during this quote, is stuck in a moment of decision. He is deciding if he should fear what is to come, wait in suspense, or make ready? Hamlet’s statement shows that he will prepare for every moment, which allows him to make direction in his future. Hamlet doesn’t give time future the advantage of being unpredictable. This idea leads to time future’s greatest question, a question that must be answered in order to understand time future. Is our future already designed?
“Time destroyer is time the preserver” (T.S. Eliot Four Quartets pg 40). T.S. Eliot gives time many names throughout the Four Quartets. By calling time a preserver, Eliot is giving time the ability to keep something safe. Therefore, the question is, what is time preserving? Eliot’s statement can mean a plethora of thing. Depending on the context, time can be seen as a preserver of the future. Eliot then gives time future another attribution to its many qualities. The future must be looked at differently in order to see it as a preserver. Normally, we see time as being, as mentioned earlier, unpredictable. It’s unpredictable in the sense that we will never know the contents of tomorrow. However, this is not to say that time is not fully unknown. If time is preserving our future, then there are things there to preserve. In which case, our future has already been planned and is waiting for us. Krishna’s statement of, “they are already killed by me,” gives the same concept. Time future exists in a realm of preservation, all is already known. To fully understand time future, we must think of it, not with questions, but with statements (Such as, I am writing my paper and I will get an A). Time future should still exist in our mind as a dark room, but we must fill this room with objects and images of intangible achievements we will obtain. We will know that these objects exist and are present in our dark room even if they cannot be seen.

Time Past
Time as it’s presented in our past should be symbolized as an infinity of things. Every memory we hold, every time we think on a day or a decision, we are envisioning time past. Our memories, therefore, act as images of time past. Time past has the power of being forever present. Our past is used in the actions we make in the present, which will therefore affect our future. Time past must be viewed entirely separate from time future in order to be understood. Our past can never be changed or altered. It is in our memories. We use time past as we use a favorite book. It is there to enjoy in contemplation and it is there to use as a referance. Time past, therefore holds a power over us, not in a way of anxiety, such as time future, but in the way of doubt.
Time past is a ghost. It is a transparent curtain which can never be breached. Our past is constantly time present fading out of our lives forever. Time past is a ghost because it constantly haunts the decisions we make. Time past is all of our memories entwined into one ghostly form which hovers over our shoulder, always ready to interfere. Shakespeare represents time past as Hamlet’s father. “Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me,” the Ghost says to Hamlet (Hamlet Act 1 Scene v). Hamlet responds with:
“Remember thee!
Ay poor ghost, while memory holds seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records” (Hamlet Act 1 Scene v)
Hamlet’s father only asked that his son remember him. This allows Hamlet’s father, a ghost, to forever remain present with Hamlet in the form of a different ghost. By placing himself in Hamlet’s memory, Hamlet will relentlessly be reminded of his father’s words. The power of time past is that it can never be forgotten. Just as the Ghost intended, Hamlet’s present decisions and actions will be based on the past recollection of the memory of his father.
Time past also needs to be recognized as purely subjective. Our memories should never be thought of as facts. The recollection of past events is only how we viewed those events. They can never be replicated. Eliot says,
“This is the use of memory:
For liberation-not less of love but expanding
Of love beyond desire, and so liberation
From the future as well as the past.” (Four Quartets pg 55).
Eliot refers to our memories freeing us from the weight of the future and past, thus saying that our memories and our past are two separate entities. Our past refers to what actually happened to us, our memory is only our perspective on what happened. Once the time we have in the present ceases to exist we store that subjective time period in our memory. These memories are brought to our initial thought whenever there is a similar recurrence. The clearer and less distorted we keep our memories the easier our present decision can become. The difficulty is how we keep those memories as close to truth as possible.
Doubt is the power that time past possesses; doubt is what encompasses our decisions. Every memory, because of its distortion is filled with doubt. Without memory’s falsities we would be left with absolute truth and in truth there cannot be uncertainty. Therefore, our past, not our memory, has the ability to provide us with every right answer and every right direction in our life. It’s the little distortions in our memory that cause our doubt. It’s when we don’t understand the past that we have trouble making the right decisions.
There’s a point in life that we come upon where we should realize that we have experienced everything. Our daily decisions start to become the same question only asked a different way. However, these decisions still take effort and contemplation, although we have already encountered them. We live in a process of reoccurrence. The questions we ask ourselves on a daily basis are the same questions we have asked a thousand times. Why, then, are they still considered questions? If we had the ability to understand our past in its pure essence, then we wouldn’t have any questions. Our lives would not only be simple, but monotonous. We still struggle to answer the same everyday questions because of doubt. I say that time past’s power is in doubt, but it should be understood that the past, itself, cannot control us. Only the past as we know in our memories can have an effect on our present decisions and, therefore, can create doubt in our lives.


Time Present
The basic representation of time present is a clock. The watch, the cell phone, and the clock on the wall we watch everyday to see just what time it is. Time present should also be referred to as the only time. It is the only time that actual events take place. It is in time present that we should place all of ourselves, “all is always now” (Eliot Four Quartets pg 19). However significant it may seem or imperative it may be, the now is forgotten. Time past and time future have overcome time present. We live in a continuous state of doubt and anxiety. We must be reminded to live in the present in order to deprive time of its power.

In The Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna repeats the importance of detachment to Arjuna. In every lesson to Arjuna, Krishna explains the need to become detached and disciplined, “He is said to be matured in discipline when he has renounced all intention and is detached” (Krishna pg 65). Krishna wants Arjuna to separate himself from the world in order to achieve purification. One form of detachment would be from the influence of time. The anxiety and doubt caused by time can be extinguished by separating ourselves from their control. It is impossible to reside in the present state of being while struggling with the pull from the future and past. This is the reason for Krishna’s lesson on discipline, as well as repetition. Even though we cannot entirely forget time future and time past, we should become disciplined to deny their influence. We should not allow them to take away the enjoyment of time present. It is about disciplining ourselves and reminding ourselves of the importance of time present.
Krishna talks of complete detachment; however, in the essence of time, I disagree. We should not entirely separate ourselves from time past and time future. There is a level of detachment that one must achieve in order to focus more clearly on time present, but we should not completely disregard the time which surrounds us. Eliot says, “Only through time time is conquered (Four Quartets pg 16). Eliot is referring to the importance of time present. By living through the now, we become slightly detached from past and present. It is impossible to become completely detached because we live in the decisions of our past and the goals of our future. We need our past and future, we just don’t need them to dominate our thoughts. Through time we can discipline ourselves to evade time’s influence.
Again, it is the importance of discipline which we must place our attention. We cannot simply conquer time by focusing only on the present. There are imperfections we must fix in the way we view our past and future.
If we recognize the anxiety that time future can cause, then we should work to achieve a less anxious life. When Hamlet says, “the readiness is all,” he is announcing the remedy for defeating time future (Hamlet Act V Scene ii). Hamlet, before he has his epiphany, is worried of what time future will bring, “If it be now, tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now” (Hamlet Act V Scene ii). He realized that by being prepared for the future he can reduce his anxiety. It is impossible to simply live in the present because the past and future will constantly interfere. We must discipline our past and future.
The way to disciplining the future is to always be ready. This will reduce the anxiety our future can bring us in our present. Being prepared, while living in the present, will reduce our future’s influence. Thus, readiness will make it more possible to live in the now.
Now, for the past. Our only knowledge of the past is in our memories. Our memories are imperfect and this causes doubt in our present state. Reducing the influence of time past is difficult because we can never be certain in our memories. However, it is in our best interest to try. We know that our past gives us every answer; it is our job to correctly remember, “and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive were we started and know the place for the first time” (Four Quartets, pg 57). Eliot’s words suggest that we can only know a place if we return to it. It’s in our inability to remember that causes us to revisit parts of our lives. In order to perfect our memory we must take away all judgment. It is judgment that hinders our ability to remember clearly. Disciplining ourselves to view things with a transparent lens will help in our ability to live in the present.
Time present might be the most essential of times, but it’s the most difficult to attain. One must defeat both time past and time future in order to conquer time present. Eliot says, “Quick now, here, now, always—A condition of complete simplicity” (Four Quartets pg 57). He is making a satirical statement that, to always live in the now is simple; saying that, it’s a condition of life that’s easy to accomplish. He then adds, “(Costing not less than everything),” showing the realistic price of living in the present (Four Quartets pg 57). In order to completely conquer time we must give up everything, our life as we know it.
An experience in time, not only takes time, but is truly a condition of complete frustration. Living in the present, while being ready for the future and not judging the past, is difficult. Gaining the experience of time means we must completely, entirely, and utterly conquer time. The understanding will only come when we finally learn to live wholly in the present. We will reach “the still point of the turning world” at the moment we have our experience (Eliot Four Quartets pg 15). There is no assurance of when our experience might be. It might have already happened and we have forgotten. However, I’m hoping it will happen in our future, in which case we shall be ready.