Have you ever had an experience where everything seemed to go into slow motion? Perhaps you were involved in a road accident, or maybe you fell from a ladder. Maybe you fell in love, and that moment seemed to last forever.
The great Buddha once said that if you are spending time with a pretty girl, an hour feels like a second. But if you are sitting on a red hot coal then a second seems like an hour. Herein lies the clue.
I was recently talking to a friend who related to me an experience he had in his youth whilst driving a motorbike at speed. Whilst negotiating a roundabout he leaned over too far, the surface of the road was slippery, and as the motorbike started to slide from under him, everything appeared to go into slow motion.
So vivid was this experience that forty years on he can still see the sequence of events as they happened and described them in precise detail. He can still see the motorbike spinning around on the roaad in front of him. He can still see the sparks given off by the foot rest as it scraped along the road. He can still remember flying through the air and landing somewhat dazed but otherwise unharmed in a ditch.
He explained how over the years he had pondered this incident in an attempt to explain why time slowed down. The conclusion at which he arrived is extremely thought provoking.
In that moment his attention became so concentrated that his focus was solely upon the moment. There was no time for him to think about his girlfriend, no time to think about his examination results, no time to think about his bank account, or even whether he had enough money to buy food for that day. In that moment he had to survive, and there were no other issues to cloud his mind.
This led him to a conclusion which even today he finds quite extraordinary, and that is that if our focus becomes concentrated time appears to slow down, then if our focus were to become perfect, then time would cease altogether, and in that moment we would experience Eternity.
All of the great prophets have spoken of an incredible place which they have described by different names, be it Nirvana, Samedi, or the Kingdom of Heaven. All of them have explained that this is an experience which each of us can attain within this lifetime.
What if Eternity is not just some far off dream, what if the Kingdom of Heaven lies not beyond some green hill far away, but within us? Jesus spoke very clearly when he told us that the Kingdom of Heaven lies within. Could it be that he was in fact telling the truth?
It is my firm belief that the Kingdom of Heaven resides within each one of us waiting to be discovered by those whose troubled hearts are crying out for peace. The Kingdom of Heaven is not some physical place as many suppose it to be, but rather it is an experience that resides within us all, and as such it is within the reach of each and every one of us.
If in our lives we are fortunate enough to experience Eternity then one thing is for sure, and that is that we have finally discovered the Kingdom of Heaven within. I wish you all good luck upon your journey./TE
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