- The difference is this:
Before awakening, while chopping wood the mind was already thinking about carrying water; while carrying water it was thinking about cooking rice.
After awakening, chopping wood is only chopping wood; carrying water is only carrying water; cooking rice is only cooking rice.

Awakening does not remove us from ordinary life.
It returns us to it-fully.

1) Time - an illusion created by the mind

From the moment we become self-aware, we are imprisoned by a concept that seems obvious: time.
We live inside a flow of past, present, and future-yet that flow exists only in the mind, not in reality itself.

When the mind stops, time disappears.
For time is measured only through the idea of change.
If there is no one remembering the past and no one waiting for the future, then what we call 'time' has never truly existed.

There is no yesterday; there is no tomorrow-only now.
And now is eternity.

2) Past and future - two shadows of the present

The past is gone.
The future has not arrived.
What remains is only the present moment unfolding.
Yet the mind rarely stays here: it either turns back to the past with regret, or runs ahead to the future with worry.

The more we chase time, the farther we drift from ourselves.
Because the ego can exist only in the stream of time-while the soul cannot.

One who is awake does not live in time.
They live in presence.
And when we live completely in this moment, we touch the timeless-where there is no birth, no death, only being.

3) Time and the soul's evolution

At a lower level of awareness, time is the extended chain of experience.
It allows the soul to learn, to mature, and to return to the source of light.
Each moment is a rung on the ladder of evolution-where the soul is tested through countless roles.

But as awareness expands, we begin to understand:
reality is not a river flowing forward, but a whole mirror in which all possibilities are taking place at once.

What we call a past life or a future life is only a different layer of the same total consciousness.
In the universe, all events exist simultaneously; the difference lies only in the frequency with which we are in resonance.

4) When we let go of time, we enter eternity

When the mind clings, time is a burden.
When the mind releases, time becomes a gentle current.

We no longer race.
We no longer fear being late, or missing out.
We realise: no one is behind, and no one is ahead.
For each soul is moving through exactly the process it needs.

When time loses its grip,
we live each breath, each moment-as if it were both the first and the last.
And in that moment, the whole universe opens.

5) Eternity is in this very moment

Eternity is not somewhere far in the future.
It is unfolding in every second we are truly here.
A smile, a glance, a breath-each contains the immortality of the present.

Time is the mind's invention.
The present is Creation's gift.

When we understand this, we stop running after life; we stop chasing tomorrow.
Instead, we begin to savour life-with gratitude, with stillness, with love.

6) Conclusion - dissolving the illusion

When we see that death is an illusion, we also see that time is an illusion.
What remains-the only reality-is awareness itself, present.

When the mind is free of thought, time dissolves.
Then we no longer live in yesterday or tomorrow,
but in the eternal now-where time and space are one.