Ordinarily we think that time is divided into three categories: past, present and future. That is absolutely wrong. Time is divided only into two categories: past and future. The present is not part of time at all. Just watch, just see. When is the present? The moment you recognize that this is the present, it is already past. The moment you say, ‘Yes, this is the present,’ it is already gone, it is past. Or if you say, ‘This is going to be the present,’ it is still future. You cannot recognize present, you cannot finger present, you cannot indicate present.

 In the world of time there is no present. When you look at the clock it is already moving, not for a single moment has it stopped. When you were watching it, then too it was moving. That’s what Heraclitus means when he says, ‘You cannot step twice in the same river.’ The river is flowing. The past is there, the future is there, and the future is continuously being converted into the past. Not for a single moment is there present, not for a single moment does the clock stop, not for a single moment does the river stop. Heraclitus is right. You cannot step twice in the same river.

 One of his disciples said to him, ‘Master, I tried, you are right. But one thing more I would like to add — you cannot step even once in a river.’ That’s exactly how it is. When you touch the river, when your foot touches the river, the river is flowing. When you penetrate one inch into the river, the river is flowing. When you penetrate two inches into the river, the river is flowing. By the time you reach the bottom the river has flowed so much that you cannot say you stepped even ONCE in the same river. In time there is no present; present is not part of time. Present is part of eternity. Present means now and now knows no past and no future. Once you are discontinuous with mind, you are discontinuous with time. And time and space are together.

 In this century Einstein discovered that time and space are not two separate things; they are one thing, or two aspects of the one thing. So he called the whole thing ‘spatio-time’ to emphasise the fact that time is nothing but the fourth dimension of space. If time disappears, space also disappears. So a man who has gone beyond his mind is beyond time and space. He is, but you cannot say where he is; he is, but you cannot say when he is. When and where all dissolve. He simply is, without any definition of where and when. This is what Buddha called enlightenment. This is freedom, absolute freedom. Nothing confines you.

– OSHO [Dang Dang Doko Dang Chapter #1]

*For more articles by Osho Click Here.
*To read Q&A by Osho Click Here.