I Looked At My Life And It Was Also A River

"Did you too," he asked one time, "learn the secret of the river: that there is no time?"
"Yes, Siddhartha," he spoke. "It is this what you mean, isn't it: that the river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future?"
"This it is," said Siddhartha. "And when I had learned it, I looked at my life, and it was also a river, and the boy Siddhartha was only separated from the man Siddhartha and from the old man Siddhartha by a shadow, not by something real. Also, Siddhartha's previous births were no past, and his death and return to Brahma was no future. Nothing was, nothing will be. Everything is, everything has existence and is present."

--Hermann Hesse (from "Siddhartha ")