Real Time with Jacob Needleman

Program Description

In our contemporary lives of moving in the fast lane, it seems as if time has speeded up. We’re all feeling like victims of “busyness,” and we are obsessed with being more efficient and more acquisitive. Jacob Needleman likens time management to “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” By our constant checking of the clock, Needleman says we unconsciously ask time for “permission to eat, sleep and make love.” What we need to realize is that we’re truly searching for our inner souls, not our wasted hours. “Real time–true, meaningful time–comes from remembering oneself, from being oneself in front of one’s self.”

Jacob Needleman, Ph.D. is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University and the author of many books, including The American Soul (Tarcher 2003), The Wisdom of Love (Morning Light Press 2005), Time and the Soul (Berrett-Koehler 2003), The Heart of Philosophy (Tarcher 2003), Lost Christianity (Tarcher 2003), Money and the Meaning of Life (Currency 1994), Time and the Soul: Where Has All the Meaningful Time Gone … and How to Get it Back (Doubleday 1997), Why We Can’t Be Good (Tarcher 2007), What Is God (Tarcher 2009), The New Religions (Tarcher Cornerstone Editions 2009). In addition to his teaching and writing, he serves as a consultant in the fields of psychology, education, medical ethics, philanthropy, and business, and has been featured on Bill Moyers’s acclaimed PBS series A World of Ideas. To learn more about the work of Jacob Needleman go to www.jacobneedleman.com

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• How to see time as a question, not as a problem
• How to experience meaningful time
• How we become addicted to fixing things and solving problems
• Where meaning comes from
• What is the fascinating story behind Time and the Soul
• How to experience the gifts of time
• How the concept of time varies in western and eastern teachings

Program Number: 2695              Host: Michael Toms             Interview Date: 12/15/1997