People's lives seem to run by clock-time. Our sleeping, waking and working schedules are dictated entirely by the clock. Time becomes measurable, it becomes finite. Time cannot be extended except by extending the time when something is due. Deadlines may be stretched, but not time...
Besides this kind of space-time compression, other kinds of time coexist with clock-time... However, we can consciously cultivate practices that bring us in touch with other kinds of temporality.
First, nature. Why do we find sitting in a garden or at the seashore so inherently relaxing? Why does our sense of urgency, stress and frenzy soften and gradually diminish without much effort? One reason is that nature is always only in the present moment. It naturally exists beyond clock-time.
Observe a tree develop from sapling to full girth. Although the clock and the calendar can be utilised to keep a record of the tree's growth, they are inadequate for a proper appreciation of its journey. The mechanical constancy of clock-time means that it is not supple enough for such processes as the gradual extension of the roots under the earth, the slow thickening of the bark and the cycle of leaves falling and new growth appearing. Clock-time appears to cease, or at least lose its grip on our consciousness when we are one with nature; it is simply insufficient to measure the rhythms of nature.
When we experience time dissolving in this way... we have relinquished clock-time by means of immersion in the present moment. The present moment is one that is experienced without regard to either past or future, for it is a moment experienced in its fullness... The present moment is merely a name for a moment so consciously experienced that both past and future dissolve into what is often called the Now. When we are in the Now, the notion of time collapses.
The clock, however, doesn't stop ticking. Rather, the continual reincarnation of time in our minds depends on our inserting each moment of our lives into a temporal narrative, into some story of past and future. This tendency necessarily takes us away from the present. And when this mental activity ceases, even for a few moments, we palpably experience a release from time's hold upon us. We relax. Unsurprisingly then, alongside the speed-up in the urban workplace one has witnessed an upsurge of interest in meditation. For, one of the purposes of meditation is to cultivate one's ability to consciously be in the present moment, without taking flight into the future or seeking shelter in the past.
In meditation, it is not only outside of ourselves that we experience a temporality that disrupts the normative status of clock-time. Our own bodies can also serve to illustrate this. We will notice the small and not-so-small punishments that we mete out to our bodies in order to be disciplined by time: our forsaking sleep and nutrition, our becoming vulnerable to stress, our pushing bodily limits by means of stimulants.
If, however, we organise the workday according to the rhythms of the body, the hours we work and the conditions in which we perform our labour will be radically different. For then, the natural ebb and flow of energy will be integral to the social organisation of work and life. Life activity will appropriately honour three qualities; activity or rajas, inertia or tamas and dynamic stillness or sattva.