All The Time in the World?

    I attended a planning meeting which went until late in the evening yesterday, for an upcoming event at the meditation center. What impressed me about this experience is the sense that combined efforts can go a long way to making the process manageable, when people are focused and have a tight deadline to accomplish. There are times when pressure to meet a deadline can create a kind of strong cohesive energy which is hard to find when things are not so pressing. Time can be a very strong agent of change, and it makes me wonder what role 'time' plays in timeless learning.
   Contemplative education circles often emphasize timeless learning as a way of seeing wholeness in what we are doing and learning. It's about immersing oneself in the moment of doing and learning, rather than itemizing and reducing action into a measurable set of tasks. But, given my recent experience with the benefits of deadlines, I wonder, does timeless learning exclude time altogether? Or are the two notions of time and timelessness compatible somehow?
    Like most things in life, this is not an either-or exclusion question, but more of a way of clarifying complementary halves in a whole. Time has a role in human existence because human life is short, precarious and full of distractions and choices. I have often read Tibetan Buddhist texts which exhort people to protect their human life, seeing it as a precious opportunity that rarely comes upon sentient life. Keeping track of what we do with time does have a role, because we just don't know where consciousness will go in the next life, and what form it will take, so there is a need to reflect on how one uses time. Do we use time to generate beneficial things, or might we be using it to satisfy short-lived cravings? Is our time spent pleasing our desires or fancies, or is it used to get a glimpse into an inconceivable mind? Practice requires an earnestness and a sense of gravity in the face of time, and using time wisely is an aspect of merit that can't be overlooked.
   It seems that time itself can become a timeless practice when the moments are honored and respected holistically. I think this means making wise choices about how to use time and then immersing in those moments timelessly with a sense of abandon. Without a sense of the timeless, we could not enter this sacred space of moments, and time itself would just be a series of disjointed tasks that have no coherence or flow. But without the sense of time, it can be easy for the 'timeless' to become a wandering, yawning void. Sometimes, we have to be appreciative of our pressing deadlines, while not making an idol out of its small achievements.