world. They are intending to become aware of aggregates as all periods in historical time inclusive in one consciousness. This is the ideal of knowing about all cosmic events and human destinies (like in astrology and the low of karma), not only just the form but also the content of each process. Such goal changes the acceptance of time from the very start of their way in a spiritual practice. That is why the lives of saints are full of mystic happenings during their development even before achievement of self-realization. Their position according to timing is replaced by staying in “volume consciousness’ or eternity (as you can see in the “Volume Way’ chapter). While the volume is not all-embracive in the beginning, this is already principally another strategy of life. Conscious timing will be described in the following chapter about “tuning the rhythm’ when we will understand the role of the subject in the situation. Here we are dealing with objective characteristics of the world as time-space matrix: situation, dynamism, and periods.
Situation as it is
The notion of “timing’ is the most important for any present situation even if this is just routine work. Needless to say about spiritual practice, where time is hold under conscious control. I used the notion of “timing’ since I met one Western sannyasi (a type of monk) who was traveling in Asia for 16 years. We did not keep in touch by phone or e-mail but often “accidentally’ met in three different countries (Thailand, Laos, China), and everyone knows how many such a mystic meetings happens during traveling. Discussing next tracks he often reminded me about “timing’ to decide how long to stay in this or that country: waiting for spring or using visa-run. Once I was shocked in the street when a motorcyclist crushed and died just at my feet. He run to the cross-street, felt as in a movie, turned two-three times and fallen apart. His body tried to stand up while his broken head pulled him down. After some convulsions he died. In the evening I told the incident to my friend. He answered just with one word: “Timing!” But in a few minutes of silence he added: “Useful to observe’. Well, it is useful in any situation to see: how “time starts’ and how “time ends’. You are ready or not; win or lose – that is all. You can make one decision but you never know what will happen. It is only “timing’.
Timing is good to travel for some period since (slowly and surely) you can develop strong feeling of unity with the dimensions of time-space, where everything is inter-correlated and inter-connected. You do not need to worry about the future, but it makes sense to analyze incoming events and trace your own trajectory of movement. Mastering “timing’ gives a flexible strategy for your planning: you have an algorithm of actions, which can be immediately changed at any moment if you get new information about better chances or possible danger and obstacles. A similar strategy is needed in a spiritual practice: by choosing a particular practice, you arrange everything around its performing, and it will become a central part of your whole activity. But if you see signs of something wrong in the practice, meet a better instructor or find another experience – you must be ready to coordinate everything according to the new situation. Do not just leave your started practice behind, but complete a transfer from previous actions to the new ones. Transaction is a working zone because the whole of life as such is a transaction – from nothing to being, from darkness to light, from death to life. Any situation includes everything: timing, knowledge, and realization.
Static / Dynamic
Static and dynamic is the basic correlation in feeling your own path. Similar to balancing, timing is mastered in personal experience only. Everybody knows that even worldly business requires both skills in patience (waiting for months and years until success) using stability for improvement of your foundation and ability to do multiple parallel actions (while traveling coordinating the staff at a distance) without errors in every step. Spiritual practice concentrates timing in the eternal unity of the individual and god. Ideal timing is the being of Time itself in its evolving through destinies of people and ages. The person is a conscious axis for cosmic circling. For instance, some kriya-yoga teachers explain self-realization as becoming Time itself. That is why timing is more obvious in examples of great personalities. They are embodiments of whole ages in human evolution. They found the basis for new traditions giving “programs’ to people and nations for hundreds of years. Such epochal changes happen in a direct synchronized moment. Before they become able to guide the world’s destiny, their lives are full of fate when timing possesses their personal structure for alignment with common development. Literary, they do what they cannot escape – and nothing else!
Technically, when you master timing on the structural level, first of all, you need to develop an axis for centering. It would be a process of coordinating the center of your self-being with Supreme Self. The yogic ideal requires performing different rituals in many cultures. Slowly, the ritual became abstract as pure principles of development – movement and / or stability. If we take the version of spiral (circling around axis) we can call it as “movement in stability’. So, first strategically the connection in any personal algorithm is “timing – axis’. Punctuality depends on being centered, and vice versa; axis is developing together with punctuality. For example, Yogi Bhajan always prescribed meditation for a precise period 11 minutes and then – you have three, two… minutes left. Kundalini Yoga needs the centering of all practices around rising Kundalini up alone the spine. However, you can use for this goal both dynamic and static techniques, punctually changing your practice in the proper time. Eternity does not discriminate between movement and stability. Everything is moving in a total stillness in the holistic universe. This is the perfect orienteer for coordination between dynamic and static.
Periods
Obviously, every developed person demonstrates his mastering in “timing’. Each special practice (sadhana) or life period is directly separated in time. After that a sudden inexpectable change happens and one starts another period moving to a different field, changing ones style or manners etc. Such radical changes seem crazy and unreasonable for surrounding people while they always have an inner foundation being very punctual in timing. For instance, at the beginning Ramakrishna’s conduct caused laugh and he was treated as a mad man. You see, once he prayed to Jesus Christ, and then he performed Muslim prayes, next he jumped on trees like Hanuman (god monkey) calling Rama, etc. However, Ramakrishna himself finished each sadhana after a specific determined period in his self-realization; especially when he achieved the final goal as the Vision of God (Darshan). The very end of his efforts was adwaita (non-duality). We see similar periods in Ramana Maharshi’s life: leaving home, 17 years in the cave, staying in the house with his family, as a head of the ashram. The saint (recognized in India) was silent ten years, and suddenly he started to accept many visitors daily and answering to everyone. Why all changed? Inner work creates the intention to start a new period, and everything is converted according to new task.
Timing is required in your interaction with different traditions too. You can belong to this or that school due to initiations, perform some particular sadhana, accept some guru, or study classic scriptures. For example, Swami Satyananda was disciple of Swami Sivananda for 10 years, and he was the best disciple, therefore everybody expected him as the next head of the ashram. But once he was sitting on the bank of the Ganges (a river of northern India) and thinking that he cannot become enlightened there. Next day he left the ashram, forever, not worrying what his guru and people will say about this. Otherwise, he would had never become the founder of the Bihar school of yoga which he created after ten years of solitary wandering and studying with many other masters. In the same way, Swami Vivekananda chose the time for his trip to America, where he was not invited by anybody, while he felt that Time itself sent him to the West. Waiting, praying, asking for blessings, visiting sacred places, and meditating day and night, he got the necessarily sign and became enthusiastic: “NOW I am ready!” Timing creates a strong feeling of beginning and end for everything. Events do not come sooner or later. You can develop your
