KEY 4: Don't waste your time or energy
This well-known equation above presents us with a fundamental relationship: that of time and speed on the one hand, and that of mass and energy on the other.Applied to human beings as a general concept, another factor must be added: we are open systems that constantly interact with our environment. From birth, we are conditionally given a certain amount of mass, energy, and time, which are relatively constant unless we alter them with our own clumsiness: shortening time, increasing mass, or wasting energy on useless tasks.
We can observe changes in our vitality throughout our lives. As children, we have a lot of time and energy, but little mass: little physical, social, or intellectual mass. We have physical, emotional, and social energy to spare; time seems endless, the days are long, and the summers are infinite.
In old age, the opposite occurs: physical mass decreases, bones become fragile, physical energy is depleted, and social energy and emotions also weaken, becoming more fragile or hardened. The days pass quickly and the years rush toward inevitable death.
This strange relationship between mass and energy is accompanied by a change in the perception of time.
We perceive this unconsciously, and as we move toward adulthood, we try to compensate for it with physical exercise, diets to maintain body mass, energy supplements, or breaks in contact with nature. However, time continues to shorten, so we increase the speed of our tasks and use more energy. Inexorably, time continues to accelerate, until we reach a point where we can no longer contribute more energy, especially if we have wasted it before.
This is both a scientific and a vital equation from which we cannot escape. It has no solution, but it does have an end: death. In this game, we always lose.
So what can we do? Change the playing field; play the game on another terrain.
Let's look at the possibilities of movement of the body, compare them with those of the heart and the speed of the mind. Some planes have limitations; others are more free and open. Our personal equation of time and energy has little chance of success on the material plane, but we can rise above it: meditate, contemplate life from a panoramic perspective, as if we were on top of a mountain. Let's imagine that we are that mountain, calmly observing life in the valley. We will see that time seems to stand still; and that is because we have changed planes.
Let's look at the confusion of problems that surrounds us, the tangle of causes that brought us here, and the many possibilities that have not yet materialized. Let's take a step back, upward, toward the best of ourselves, toward the stillness far from passions. Then we will see that tangle become a line, and we will distinguish special marks: moments when someone helped us, experiences that transformed us, or lessons that revealed something profound. That apparent confusion takes on meaning and becomes a chain of essential events that led us here. The rest is just background noise.
Beyond that daily personality that suffocates and agitates us, there is another consciousness: an open, broad vision, from a place where we can breathe and the oppression in our chest that we feel every day disappears. That new consciousness allows us to look with confidence at what surrounds us and what lies ahead. There is no rush; we are outside of time. It is another time, a time that does not run, but remains.
If we are able to remain in that state of consciousness, time will cease to be lost, because it will be essential inner time. We will act at the right moment, in the right direction, without haste but with the accuracy of truth.
Then energy will be infinite, because it will have no limits or deadlines; it will flow freely and be applied where it should, without being dispersed in futile efforts. Inexhaustible, it will make our actions unaware of fatigue, especially mental and spiritual fatigue, which is the most dangerous. On the contrary, we will know that we are working under the protection of a mind greater than our own, by a higher energy. In calm and peace.