Timely Treat

We are living in a busy world, where the most commonly heard comment from people, when asked for a favor is, ‘I don’t have time!’ But behind these innocuous words is there a philosophy and way of life which is so typical of our times, and may even prove to be a danger signal. Are we so preoccupied with so many things in life, that we find it impossible to look into some of the ‘essentials’ of life? Do we really find it impossible to squeeze in a few minutes to be with our dear ones? I tend to believe that ‘I don’t have time’ is merely an excuse to say ‘I don’t care for you!’ It is an escape route, we often wish to take, and quite many can easily see through what we mean!

Tony D’Mello in The Prayer of the Frog (Vol. 1) has two tiny anecdotes to illustrate what we mean when we say ‘I don’t have time’! The first anecdote talks about a monk who had invited the governor for meditation to his hut, but the governor had been postponing the visit because he did not get time. So one day the monk confronted the governor and said, ‘You put me in mind of a man walking blind folded into a jungle, and too busy to take the blindfold off!’ If we care to take a close look at what we are busy with from morning till evening each day, we will realize that not all of them are of top priority.

Without realizing we might often be spending (or say wasting) so much of our time with things which are not so important. This also refers to our priorities, which are the one’s which take most of our time – our personal wellbeing or that of others, or both others and me. If the governor understood that attending a meditation would benefit him far more than getting involved with mere administrative routine works, he would have given priority to attending the meditation practice with the monk. Considering our top priorities honestly may open our eyes to assess where our hearts lie.

The second anecdote that D’Mello describes is this: There was an exhausted woodcutter, who kept wasting time and energy chopping wood with a blunt axe because he did not have the time, he said, to stop and sharpen the blade! This is precisely what we are most often preoccupied with. It is said that if a wise man has ten hours to chop wood, he would sharpen his axe for eight hours. To think that nay serious preparation or setting our priorities is a waste of time would only put us at the back bench.

The most important point therefore is to know our priorities, to know which one is of primary importance. Next time before I tell someone I don’t have time, I need to give a serious thought to where I am, and where I want to go. For the one who is open to learn from life’s experience, there is always time, and escapists and late-comers will always find it convenient to say ‘I don’t have time’, and thus escape or exit from life’ challenges.