Burnt Norton
Consciousness
"Time past and time future Allow but a little consciousness. To be conscious is not to be in time..." (16)
-Because time is constantly moving, a persons present consciousness is always shifting, for what is conscious now, was the future just a mere second earlier, and now has drifted into the past. There is only a small window for someone to find their present consciousness for what has passed will never again be and the future has not yet arrived.
"The still point of the turning world."
"The point. The one point between beginning and end. The one point where nothing can ascend, decline, move from nor towards. It is still, and is in the complete present of consciousness."
"the end precedes the beginning, and the end and the beginning were always there Before the beginning and after the end. And all is always now."
"The inner freedom from the practical desire, the release from action and suffering, release from the inner and the outer compulsion, yet surrounded."
-The only way for someone to find this release is in ones current state of consciousness. Not effected by the past or future, only by the single point of which nothing ascends or declines, goes to or from.
-At the very tip of this point is a persons present consciousness. When a person can get to that single point, where nothing else effects them from the past or the future, then they are truly only living in the moment. However, most people are not in their present consciousness, but are overpowered by their subconscious. Their subconscious may take them to memories of the past that no longer exist, or their subconscious may drift their thoughts to the future, to what it may hold, causing their present conscious to not be in the moment, but living in the moment only for the future. Because time is always moving, the one point is always moving as well. And because of this, past and future are always contained in the present. A person may let their present conscious move with this point through time, making them only live in their subconscious, and becoming consumed by their thoughts of times past or times to come.
"caught in the form of limitation Between un-being and being. Sudden in a shaft on sunlight Even while the dust moves, There rises the hidden laughter of children in the foliage Quick now, here, now always- Rediculous the waste sad time Stretching before and after."
