The perceptions of time change so much even though we believe that ‘time’ is fixed. For the greatest measurement of time seems to be our life spans. And ageing. We even call what happens to our bodies as we age the ‘ravages of time’ as if time was this train that chugs along at it’s unchangeable pace, and everything seems to revolve around that pace. And yet we keep trying to slow down that train, hoping that we will age slower. In fact by living healthier (or trying to !). And often because we savour the situations we are in and never want them go away. And often blame time for those anticipations and situations for going away. So time at best is a perception that is based on the situation we percieve we are in, or how healthy we feel. Time sits so heavily when we are depresesed for example, we say. So why do we give time an ‘actuality’ like a precise ticking clock that reminds us of it’s tick tock every second. Imbibe upon time a ‘a law pf physics’ that is completely unchangeable, but every moment are perceiving time completely differently depending upon the current state of our minds.
\nDid you say to anyone that you will love them forever ? My guess is that if you really felt it, and if your being was engulfed into that one statement – then you really did sense the the word we call eternity. I have loved you through eternity and will love you eternally. Suddenly all perception of time for that moment has disappeared. The clock does not tick any more. In the holding of that one hand, in the harmonizing of the two breaths, eternity has been sensed.
\nSo where are we at those moments ? ……<\/p>\n
\nAs a child on holiday with my family in the Himalayan mountains, a one month’s vacation break was a lifetime for me. But now seem to have lost the ability to lose myself timelessly in play – one month is just one month – a measurement of time available to me. Why do we value ourselves in the context of the ticking clock ? Is it social imperative ? Have we been taught to do that ? Or is it instinctive. People who live less rushed lives find a whole eternity in watching a sunset. What led us to this situation ?
\nAnd if time is about perception, which time is true ? The clicking clock or what I call – emotional time. How many of us keep falling into emotional time and then feel guilty and remind ourselves about the ticking clock. I know the argument will be – but what about ageing ?
\nLets look at ageing from the law of physics. Einstein famously said that the greater your velocity the slower time goes. But which time ? If you were sitting in a space ship that travelled close to the velocity of light, you would probably age only imperceptibly. But from which context ? From who’s context ? You would still be living in your emotional time. If you took a clock, the clock would move exactly at the same speed as your percived linear time in the space ship. You would still look at that extra grey strand in your hair and say to yourself ‘ oh my God ! time is really catching up !” – even though, according to Einstein, to the people that you left behind on earth, you would practically be eternal.
\nIncidentally, I have always wondered what would happen (theoretically, even) if we could make a connection between the people left on earth and you in a space ship travelling close to the velocity of light – my guess is that any message from earth to you would be garbled undecipherable jumble of noise. Because the dots and the dashes would be too bunched together for you to be able to perceive. So nothing changed in terms of time did it ? Imagine that we became almost immortal – imagine that we lived 1000 years – we wold look at our diaries and say ‘Oh my God ! I have so much to do this month – 3 lunch appointments ! I wuld write a blog every 10 years and consider that too much. Everything is contextualized in relationship to how we perceive time.
\nSo, then Mr Einstien, is there a possibility of a universe that exists within ours, or near us, that has such velocity that it feels static and almost eternal ? Ah that word again – eternal ! I love you eternally – how do I get into that sense of eternity then ?
\nSo we have such different perceptions of time – both from a scientific point of view and also from an emotional\/perception point of view. Why do we do ourselves such a disfavour by contextualizing it (and therefore ourselves) by a ticking clock ?
\nAnd what happens if the person in the spaceship – who according to Mr Einstein refuses to grow older from OUR time perspective – but perceives himself in exactly the same ‘time bind’ as we do – what happens if he crosses the velocity of light ? Does time stop ? is that the realization of Eternity ? Will that person suddenly explode into consciousness ? what does ‘no time’ mean from a physics point of view ? All theories break at that point – for then there was no begining and no end. The Big Bang is still happening. Has happened and will happen – depending upon which point of view you are looking at it.
\nThe point then is – if time is just perception, then do we need to travel at the speed of light to break out of our linear perceptions ? for at the end of Mr Einstein’s theories there is incredible stillness. And if there is – does that stillness not exist at the same time as linear time ?
\nIs the experience of this stillness what Buddha called Shunyata ? A mmoment beyond the mind”s addiction to linearity of time ? is this falling in love so deeply and compassionately without a need for possession, that all perception of time falls away ? Is this meditation, and finally :
\nIs this the experience God ?
\nAnd if it is, and time truly is a perception and not just a definitive linear reality – then we are both dead and alive at the same time – we live both in eternity and in trapped by linear time at the same moment in time. Depends upon our perception. Thats why, just be in love. Not in love in some acquisitive way, but so deeply in love that you break through all structures and strictures,
\nand learn to live in emotional time,
\nshekhar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The perceptions of time change so much even though we believe that ‘time’ is fixed. For the greatest measurement of time seems to be our life spans. And ageing. We even call what happens to our bodies as we age the ‘ravages of time’ as if time was this train that chugs along at it’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-search-for-the-self"],"yoast_head":"\n