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 More Bright Ideas for Better Living from Lifescope.

Subject: Lifescope TIPs & QUIPs [12] "The Art of Time"

Do you have enough time in your life? this issue's topic offers a way 
of looking at this question. And once you've appreciated the beauty of 
these words, be ready to have your thinking set on its ear, by the 
Recommended Site...  Enjoy, then hang on to yourself.  --Lee Lukehart

TIPs & QUIPs, the free occasional email of helpful hints and quotes (and
sometimes challenging suggestions) for getting the most from life.

In this issue:
     *** WiseWords
     *** This Issue's Theme
     *** Suggested Resources
     *** Thrive On! Recommended Site


*** WiseWords ***
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"Dost thou love life? 
 Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."
  --Benjamin Franklin

"Those who make the worst use of their time 
 are the first to complain about its shortness."
  --Jean de La Bruyere

"Time is just the space between our memories. 
 When we cease perceiving this space, time has vanished."
  --Henri Frederic Amiel

"This time, like all times, is a very good one, 
 if we but know what to do with it."
  --Ralph Waldo Emerson

(For a collection of some of our favorite WiseWords, see our web page at
<http://www.lifescope.com/pages/WiseWords.html>.)


*** This issue's theme:  THE ART OF TIME
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Time can be fluid and flexible; time can be unrelenting. Time is how you
perceive it. It can be intimately personal, or given freely to the public.
We have so many subjective conceptions of time, that it MUST be art! 
Again resorting to my bookshelf, I've found a slim volume of ideas and 
thoughts on this topic that is a gem to behold. Allow me to share some
of its sparkle with you now. The following is a brief overview on the 
Art of Time by Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber, translated from French...


The Greeks were the first people to have a theory of art. They sought
reasons and rules for those rare human creations that sustain our inner
coherence. They concluded that five elements were necessary in art:

       order, balance, contrast, unity, and harmony.

The importance of these elements has been minimally affected by the advent
of technological civilization. Are they in fact anything other than the
expression of our own profound yearnings and sources of satisfaction? They
must apply to our style of life as well as the columns of the Parthenon.
And if the expression "the art of time" is not an empty formula, it is
because we may hope both to consider how these five qualities apply to time
and to act so that this is very much our own work:

1.  Order,
because we need to know where our time is going. We have trouble in seizing
it globally, and we organize and distribute it according to our capacity
for analysis. Once the time structures chosen by us materialize and endure,
confusion abates.

2.  Balance,
when we discover that letting our time be swallowed up in one principal
activity (however gratifying) entails decay and ruptures in other areas.
Scarce time is inevitably rationed among the main areas of interest in our
lives, and it is we who decide how to distribute it. When this distribution
is uneven, we will be the first to suffer the consequences.

3.  Contrast,
by accepting ourselves as we are, namely, not disposed to tolerate doing
the same thing for long. To know how to alternate the mental and the
physical, concentration and diversion, solitude and communication, action
and retreat. This incessant movement constitutes the dance of life. Now, is
not dance the oldest and most widespread of the arts?

4.  Unity,
for order is not compartmentalization, but the emergence of a view of the
whole. Segmenting our life would be losing what life offers in the way of
unexpected syntheses and fertile resonances. Modern time presents itself to
us all cross-ruled. Only we, through concentration, can restore unity to it.

5.  Harmony,
in ancient Greek, meant "together." It is, of course, the joint product of
the four preceding qualities. It is not definable, but felt. In the
morning: "Does the day look promising?" In the evening: "Have I used my
time well?" Or at every instant, when we stick our head out the window of
the present. Harmony is both the test of our mastery and its reward.

The Art of Time appears also as the first stage toward an Art of Living
that implies, in addition to what has just been mentioned, the
accomplishment of our plans. **When we achieve even average mastery 
of our time, our plans' chances of success take a giant step upward.**

At the start, the disciplines for reaching this will seem constraining.
There is no need for fretting about this: it is merely a transitional
stage, and it is so worth the trouble! A little more time: isn't this 
the most beautiful and precious gift we can give ourselves?

Using a parallel with dieting, the diet is initially experienced as hard:
forgoing the foods we like (sugar, pasta, and so forth) and restricting our
intake of the rest. Each meal is seen as a test of our willpower. Then one
day, we are no longer tempted by the forbidden foods and we no longer want
second helpings of the rest. We talk not about our diet, but about new
eating habits.

Similarly here, the method's apparent goal is merely to help us use our
days and weeks better. Its real goal is to help us internalize the form,
flow, and value of our time. When we have done this, we shall react to
every element of life by sensing how it will fit into our time, weigh on
it. At that point we will no longer need the method. It will have allowed
us to reach a new level of awareness. We will be able to leave it by the
roadside like a vehicle that has taken us to our destination.

It will be at our own pace that we make progress toward mastery. For this
progress never stops, as long as we still have time to live.

-- Excerpted from THE ART OF TIME by Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber
[Excerpt authorized as Fair Use under Copyright Act of 1976, Section 107]


*** Suggested Resources ***
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I would of course have suggested this book -- but alas, it's out of print.
Instead, let me suggest that you print this excerpt, go find a favorite, 
quiet place outside -- and take the time to absorb the art in this message.


*** Thrive On! Recommended Site ***
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Time Wave Zero <http://parsifal.membrane.com/zero/>
(Just when you thought it was safe to come out...)
Here's an item to spend your time pondering (but do it quickly):
Talented pattern finder Terence McKenna believes the universe has a rhythm,
a pulse, if you will. Time-scientist (and severe psychedelicist, I
should add) McKenna has mathematically derived a model of this 'heartbeat'
from fractal patterns inspired by the hexagrams of the I Ching. From this
model he has been able to map many of the epochcal events in earth's
evolution: his waves coincide with ice ages, the appearance of life, the 
emergence of human consciousness, the Vedic conception of the world, 
and the prophesied Christian apocalypse (to which many world cultures 
have an equivalent), just to name a few.

His punch line is: the world as we know it will cease on December 21, 2012.
If you want to try to bend your mind around Terence's explanation, check out
<http://www.levity.com/eschaton/waveexplain.html>.
Scoff if you will, but Terence is undeniably a learned, if extreme, individual. 
Before you automatically dismiss his conclusions (all of them edge-pushing), 
consider that much scientific understanding is gained by trying to legitimately 
disprove theories -- not just ridicule them. I have heard Terence speak -- his
conclusions are outrageous, but his methods at deducing them are reasonable.
One must just be certain to diligently verify his facts.


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The contents herein are solely the opinions of Lifescope editors, and should 
not be considered as a form of therapy nor advice. There is no guarantee of 
validity or accuracy. Lifescope therefore assumes no responsibility for injury
and specifically disclaims any warranty, express or implied, of fitness or 
merchantability for a particular purpose. Besides, actual mileage may vary.

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