21
Are we inching toward death, or is death moving toward us?

Almost everyone I encounter is astonished by how fast time flies. Months seem to pass like days. But, is there really any movement at all?

If life is not a movement, what is it then? This is not a question to be answered by the rational mind. It is an everyday zen koan or riddle. If our life doesn't move, then what does that imply about death? Doesn't death require the movement of life, if we are to reach the moment of death?

Only within the framework of time does movement take place. If time stops, then life and death do not move. Don't ask how to stop time; it is not an act of will. If you realize that time is a construction, an abstraction, then time disappears as the illusion it is. You do not have to shove time out of consciousness any more than you have to push out darkness to get at the light.

What happens to death when the mind sees through the fabrication of time? Don't answer! Don't move!

in the morning
the poppy opens
at night, it closes

morning glory
here today
gone today