Why only mystics? Even scientists now say that time is an illusion.
Every “thing” ie what can be called Reality, including time can exist only if there is a perceiver. No two perceivers see the same “thing”. The smallest matter that physicists have been able to perceive is ephemeral. If I sit with my girl friend, 30 minutes seem to fly away. If I sit with my mother in law, thirty minutes seems to be for ever!
Coming back to the perceiver, if there is no perceiver, there is no perceived and no perception. What is is just consciousness. When consciousness decides to use a tool like you and me, it lights that up and we perceive and there is experience.
But let us not get involved in that debate. Let us take a simple example.
It takes eight minutes for sunlight to reach the earth. The light of the nearest star to earth reaches us after 8 million years. In other words, we can not even know if that star exists ‘now’ or not.
If that does not prove that time is an illusion, I do not know what will.
This topic has been suggested by The Old Fossil for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently six of us write on the same topic every Friday. I hope that you have enjoyed my contribution to that effort. The five other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Ashok, gaelikaa, Maxi, and Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!
All I know is time flies when you’re having fun!
Cheerful Monk recently posted..An Organizational Glitch
All I know, Jean, is that the other day I turned up for an appointment one day EARLY. Try and explain that one away. Best I could come up with was: “Shows you how keen I am”.
Another week I thought it was Tuesday when, unfortunately, it was Wednesday which was brought to my attention on Thursday.
Yes, time – the tease.
U
Ursula recently posted..Dream on: I have started so I’ll finish
That is behaviour associated with people of my age Ursula! Are you sure you are not of the same age?
It sure does and another explanation in support for the motion.
In my work, I’ve noticed that sometimes the hour (well, 45 minutes actually) just flies by and other times creeps along slowly, depending on the patient and how engaged they are. In general, my perception ff time has changed so that it goes faster and faster every year.
Secret Agent Woman recently posted..Bath update.
I am glad that you find time goes faster and faster every year. It is generally the opposite for people as they age and when they retire from active occupations.
The cartoons made things abundantly clear! Along with the mother-in-law. And I’ll add a line from a song I featured in my take on the topic – I don’t care about time. Of course that may be because I do not have many more nows in my future but then again future is an illusion too. It’s all so confusing!!! And such fun to discuss!
shackman recently posted..Are the Mystics right – is time an illusion??
That is the only way to live. Not to care about time in terms of the past and present and focussed on the present.
I lose an hour every time that I leave the country and gain one when I return. I believe that it has something to do with “daylight saving”. If that is so. Where is that daylight kept ? .. 😉
Big John recently posted..Bumming around in Bergen.
Big John, it is now time for you to become a Zen Monk.
As far as I can tell, the only thing that’s illusionary about time is how it’s perceived.
Of course, everything is a matter of perception and each individual’s perception is different, albeit slightly. “Perception is reality.”
Yes indeed. No perceiver, no perceived, and no perception.
This is a fun debate, so many different views. It comes down to this for me. In the deep South we have a saying: Call me anything, but don’t call me late for dinner.
Gotta be a time factor in there somewhere.
blessings ~ maxi
Maxi recently posted..Say What You Will — Time Rules
Don’t call me late for dinner! That is a very interesting observation.
There have been occasions in my life where time was certainly no illusion! Life is made up of minutes, how we choose to deal with them determines whether they are long or short.
Grannymar recently posted..The End is never the End ~ Part 14
Yes indeed.
I guess if we didn’t have clocks and watches we’d have virtually no awareness of time, except when it got dark and got light. And even then we’d have no idea how much time had elapsed between the two.
nick recently posted..Childless
It is interesting that you say that. Roman Krznaric in his book The Wonderbox, talks in detail about this. Worth a read.