Time

I must admit that I had a really difficult time visualizing how time fits in with all of this. I know, instinctively, that it is something which could also be manipulated, and indeed must be possible if we are to make any changes to shape our realities.

Alas, I am still a baby Taoist .

But please have faith in me. I’m still learning, still working on the acquisition of knowledge and the assimilation of information to make sense out of what I read. Lacking a real Taoist teacher, I usually think about what I read and then ask myself what Winnie the Pooh would say if he were presented with the question or situation, and often, what I imagine he will say is usually very sound.

I did find something which does answer your concern, after much digging, although for me, it raises more questions than it answers. Nevertheless, I have to bring it to the table and hope that through the power of group think, we can discern what the meaning is.

Chapter 4. The deeper Implications of the Book of Changes.

1. The Book of Changes (the I Ching) contains the measure of heaven and earth; therefore it enables us to comprehend the tao of heaven and earth and its order.

4. In it are included the forms and the scope o everything in the heavens and on earth, so that nothing escapes it. In it all things everywhere are completed, so that none is missing. Therefore by means of it we can penetrate the tao of day and night, and so understand it. Therefore the spirit is bound to no one place, nor the Book of Changes to any one form.

Wilhelm states that: “We are shown here how the indivdual can attain mastery over fate by means of the Book of Changes. Its principles contain the categories of all that is—literally, the molds and the scope of all transformations.

These categories are in the mind of man; everything, all that happens and everything that undergoes transformation, must obey the laws prescribed by the mind of man. Not until these categories become operative do things become things.

These categories are laid down in the Book of Changes; hence it enables us to penetrate and understand the movements of the light and the dark, of life and death, of gods and demons. This knowledge makes possible mastery over fate, because fate can be shaped if its laws are known. The reason why we can oppose fate is that reality is always conditioned, and these conditions of time and space limit and determine it. The spirit, however, is not bound by these determinants and can bring them about as its own purposes require.

The Book of Changes is so widely applicable because it contains only these purely spiritual relationships, which are so abstract that they can find expressions within every framework of reality. They contain only the tao that underlies events. Therefore all chance contingencies can be shaped according th this tao. The Conscious application of these possibilities assures mastery over fate.”

So there we are. The answer is… YES, we can manipulate time and reality because everything that exists only exists within the minds of man; everything, all that happens and everything that undergoes transformation, must obey the laws prescribed by the mind of man. Not until these categories become operative do things become things.

So… we imagine something, we cause it to come into being, and then we are able to manipulate it (including time). We can manipulate it because we are not of it. On the contrary, we are outside and above the determinants that cause it to become reality, and in fact, control it because we are the ones who bring it to life by utilizing our human minds to bring forth its reality.

Potentially powerful, aren’t we?