Description:
Are you moving through the past, or is the past moving through you? A philosophical journey exploring time, perception, and the illusion of self through a late-night drive and reflections on life's transitions. Discover the wisdom hidden in the rearview mirror
The streetlights are
lit for the night. I am driving back from an errand, and I see the lamp posts
along the deserted highway passing me by. It occurred to me that perhaps I was
the one standing still, and the lamp posts were the ones moving past. I pulled
the car over to the side of the road, looked back through the rearview mirror,
and saw that the lamp posts also appeared to have stopped. I wondered: what was
receding—the lamp posts, or time itself?
I started the car and
moved forward. Was I moving further away from the place I began my journey? But
that is only half the truth. Moving away from the starting point isn't that the
same as getting closer to my home? Which one is correct, then?
A Lesson from Life's Journey
So many things in my
life are now gradually slipping away from me. In their place, I am moving my
life towards new things. And yet, the same question arises: Is it that aspects
of my life are fading away, or is it that I am adding new things to my life?
From
Childhood to Youth
The playfulness,
lightness, and long sleeps of childhood were left behind as I reached youth.
They were replaced by a mind filled with the mood of an arrogant, energetic,
stubborn, rebellious emperor who would submit to no one. In that youthful age,
I was inspired to change the world, to turn it on its head, to think in radical
ways. After watching a Bruce Lee film, I would leave the cinema feeling more
filled with martial arts than Bruce Lee himself. After watching Clint Eastwood
and Lee Van Cleef's spaghetti westerns, I would emerge from the hall a faster
gunslinger than them. Those moods, along with youth and time, passed by me at
great speed. Anyone's physical youth is what passes at the speed of light.
From
Youth to Middle Age
Through career,
marriage, children, responsibilities, and conforming to socio-cultural norms,
youth passed me by. Though I had a fondness for radicalism, I gradually drew
closer to a conventional, contracted life, and my youth passed me by. That
familiar, stubborn, stylish, arrogant, and wilful life shrivelled like leaves
in a dormant thicket, never to return.
The realization that
passing one thing means drawing closer to another is a spontaneous occurrence,
a search for spiritual liberation.
A Life Lesson from a
Buddhist Sutra
Considering the
maximum lifespan of a modern human to be around 70 years, a person who has
reached the age of 50 has a maximum of 20 years left. If he calculates the
number of years he has left to live as 20, he has only 7,300 days left to live.
The number of meals—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—remaining is 21,900.
It occurred to me
that being born and gradually drawing closer to death is exactly like the
street lamp posts rushing backwards as I drive. However, I think most people
remember and celebrate birthdays, but they do not savor the reality of death,
the comfort of understanding the truth. What a great irony it is to light
candles and celebrate a birthday while forgetting about death until the moment
one dies.
The journey forward, the past behind / An AI-Generated image
Back on the Highway
Lost in my thoughts,
I continued to drive. As I passed one lamp post, another would appear ahead and
be passed by me. In addition to the lamp posts, every object I encountered
ahead was passing me by relative to the speed of my car. Nothing paused before
my eyes. When I looked back again through the rear window, I saw that
everything I had passed was disappearing, drawn towards the past. When I turned
my head and looked ahead through the windshield, it appeared that everything
coming into view was also uniformly passing me by. I realized how instantaneous
the moment of seeing something—the present—is. I understood that nothing in the
present can be grasped and held, that they do not remain in my perception, and
that their becoming the past is an eternal truth.
What I Learned on the
Highway
Furthermore, I
clearly saw that as the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body encounter forms,
sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations, they all arise as non-self and,
as non-self, pass me by.
Once, a teacher asked
me a question:
"Where is the world, my child?"
"Everywhere...
on the earth... in the solar system... in the universe," I answered
distractedly. The teacher smiled compassionately.
"Do you see the
world, son?" he asked again.
"Yes, I see it
right here," I replied arrogantly.
"Just by
seeing?" the teacher asked again.
"No... I hear
it... I smell scents... I taste... I feel cold, warmth, and touch."
"Exactly right,
son," the teacher said with satisfaction. "Apart from those, is there
anything else inside the world?"
I was distracted
again. I felt there was a great depth in the teacher's words. Nothing came to
mind to say what else existed. The teacher took me to a large mirror.
"Look
carefully," he told me. I looked at my reflection in the mirror.
"That is the world. On the day that world ceases to exist, the entire
universe will cease to exist," he said in a philosophical tone.
There is much to understand / An AI-Generated image
The End of the Journey
I drove the car through
the gate and into the driveway of my house. I had reached my destination. Now,
I must get out of the car. I walked around the car and touched the two front
headlights. There was no mark or trace of anything I had passed during the
journey on any part of the vehicle. Everything had gone into the past with
time. I saw that even now, the present is travelling towards the past, and I
feel nothing remains with me, in unison with me. What an empty illusion this
tripartite of time is... I walked slowly into the house, thinking.
Sources & Further
Reading
To explore the
philosophical themes in this article, you might find these sources
enlightening:
1. The
Concept of Impermanence (Anicca): Central to Buddhist
philosophy, this teaching asserts that all conditioned things are in a constant
state of flux. The reflection on the lamp posts and life stages is a direct
meditation on this principle.
2. The
Doctrine of Non-Self (Anatta): As explored in
the Anattalakkhana
Sutta, this principle suggests that neither within nor outside the
body and mind can a permanent, unchanging "self" be found. The mirror
analogy used by the teacher points directly to this profound truth.
3. Time
and Perception in Western Philosophy: Thinkers
like St.
Augustine in his Confessions (Book
XI) and Martin
Heidegger in Being
and Time have deeply explored the nature of time as a
subjective human experience rather than an objective reality.
4. Mindfulness
and Present-Moment Awareness: The works of Thich Nhat Hanh,
such as "The Miracle
of Mindfulness," provide practical guidance on living in the
present moment, which is the implicit answer to the article's central question.
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