The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

The Human Beyond Time and Death
We humans are masters of transforming whatever we get our hands
on. We have completely transformed the environment of the planet
Earth to suit our purposes. We have transformed ourselves from a
physically weak species into the preeminent and most powerful social
animal, effectively enlarging and rewiring our brains as we did so. We
are restless and endlessly inventive. But one area seems to defy our
transformational powers—time itself. We are born and enter the
stream of life, and each day it carries us closer to death. Time is linear,
always advancing, and there is nothing we can do to stop its course.
We move through the various phases of life, which mark us
according to patterns beyond our control. Our bodies and minds slow
down and lose their youthful elasticity. We watch helplessly as more
and more young people fill the stage of life, pushing us to the side. We
are born into a period of history and into a generation that are not of
our choice and that seem to determine so much of who we are and
what happens to us. In relation to time, our active nature is
neutralized, and although we do not consciously register this, our
helplessness here is the source of much of our anxiety and bouts of
depression.
If we look more closely, however, at our personal experience of
time, we can notice something peculiar—the passage of the hours or
days can alter depending on our mood and circumstances. A child and
an adult experience time very differently—for the former it moves
rather slowly, and all too quickly for the latter. When we are bored,
time feels empty and grinds to a crawl; when we are excited and
enjoying ourselves, we wish it would slow down. When we are calm
and meditative, the time might pass slowly, but it seems full and
satisfying.
What this means in general is that time is a human creation, a way
for us to measure its passage for our own purposes, and our experience
of this artificial creation is quite subjective and changeable. We have
the power to consciously slow it down or speed it up. Our relationship
to time is more malleable than we think. Although we cannot stop the
aging process or defy the ultimate reality of death, we can alter the
experience of them, transforming what is painful and depressing into
something much different. We can make time feel more cyclical than
linear; we can even step outside the stream and experience forms of

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timelessness. We do not have to remain locked in the hold of our
generation and its perspective.
Although this might seem like wishful thinking, we can point to
various historical figures—Leonardo da Vinci and Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe, to name two—who consciously transcended their era and
described their transformed experience of time. It is an ideal, one that
our active nature allows for, and one well worth aiming to realize to
some degree.
Here’s how we could apply this active approach to four elemental
aspects of time.