Every morning before I begin yoga practice, which I have been doing at the beginning of every day for the past four or five years, I find one wise saying from mankind’s record of the world’s great philosophers and teachers; and I memorize the saying and hope it will stay with me through the day. A couple of days ago, I began the day with Buddha’s saying about time. He said, “The secret of health for mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, and not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” In other words, we don’t have time. It is not something we possess. The present moment is all there ever is in reality... and it can’t be grasped and held. Past and future don’t have a reality on their own. They are mental concepts in our heads. Past is a collection of memories and future is the projection of what may happen ahead. Anything can really happen only in the present moment. Nothing else regarding time exists in reality. So the task, the problem, for everyone is to get over the idea that anyone can “have” or possess time.

The teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, Buddha, that we read and hear today were passed down over five centuries as oral tradition before being first written down in Sri Lanka in the First Century BCE.

One of Buddha’s students asked him, “Are you the messiah?”
“No,” answered Buddha.
“Then are you a healer?”
“No,” Buddha replied.
“Then are you a teacher?” the student persisted.
“No, I am not a teacher,” Buddha said.
“Then what are you?”
“I am awake.”