47. Time, Duration and Movement.

What is time?, Is it something that we understand?

We use time in language, as used by everybody and believe in time, for synchronising movements. But what exactly are we doing. We seem to have a feel of time. However, a little analysis of time is overdue.

Let’s start with an assumption that time is something that really exists. Like we think space exists. Starting from here, lets try to objectify time.

Firstly we need to fix, if time is something that is stationary or something that seems to have a movement. Can we agree on it being one of the two. Or is it both, like a man ?.  Sometimes standing and sometimes moving. Unlikely. They say, time and tide waits for none. So time seems to be a movement. We would have to agree around time being a movement because, time being stationary is unimaginable. It would put the whole universe in a ‘statue’ mode. So lets agree for the time being, that time is something that moves.

This brings in the set of complications. How does time move, Linear, or to the power? We would tend to think it to be linear, because we draw so many graphs, where time is linear. Unless we believe so, we should not have been practicing so. That means, time has to move, and what we have been thought so far is that, time moves, one second per second. when one second is by the clock and compared to one second by our own feel. But in sleep, time passes faster. In death, it may be the fastest. A million years to a second. 

Time in motion is tricky.It means, 10’ O’clock itself becomes 10.01 after one second and 10.02 after two seconds and so on. Actually this seems in place. But what does it mean. It means that, morning itself becomes afternoon, and day itself becomes night. One dies to birth the other. Its like saying, the clay becomes the pot and the same pot becomes a vase. So there is only, either pot or vase or clay. When one is seen, the other two are also the same one. Cant have three clay items at a time. Existence of one, is the death of the rest. Time has such a quality with itself. It is always ‘now’ appearing as morning, afternoon night, 2011, 2012 etc. and this needs to be probed more for its meaning. Objective reality of change is measured in time, but objective measurement of change of time is not measurable. So time is not measurable change. It is a changeless, in which change of other than time is sensed. Since 'we' sense change, Time must be 'we' as Life.

Take another example. Suppose you start a race. Say only one person is running. He starts the race at 10 O’clock and has run for five minutes and covered say - 1 kilometre distance. Now, in terms of time, the 10 O’clock itself has become 10.05 at the point that he has finished. So his start time itself has advanced to his finish time. So he is at the start point itself, in terms of time and has never moved even one second, because he and time are moving together in time. That is why, he is always here. He can never go there or anywhere. It’s more like, all the anywhere that he goes, becomes the ‘here’ and ‘now’ always, no matter how fast or slow he moves, he is not moving at all. Now this is a paradox. Time in motion, is a paradox and time stationary is a unimaginable. So what is happening here. It time stationary, a movement or something that is an illusion like a mirage, but never graspable. This seems more like it. It seems to be there, but on analysis, it neither moves nor is stationary. Then what can it be. It is a movement that doesn’t seem to move. This is unimaginable.

So what moves, has time a background on which movement is registered, or time is a changeless background on which, change is registered. If so, what could be time, conceptually? How can we define time?  What are its characteristics? All that we can think of is that, this is some sort of a background. It could not be something that has motion. It has to be something that registers motion or change. Could it be life itself?, could it be Self? Who is registering motion or change?. Only that, which is changeless. And that seems to be a cognising capacity, which itself has no characteristics like change or no-change.

So, time is a sense of feel of living. Life is living itself. Living is its objective nature and time is its observing nature. So time is the observer of life. Life is movement and time is cognition of movement. Time cannot move. In fact time cannot come under the category of time in a way that we imagine time to be. So time itself is timeless, even though we assume it has some sense of time. Its a tool that seems to cognise change or movement. The tool itself is timeless. Actually this is what ‘WE ARE’. Appearances take place in ‘time’ or in ‘us’ as if durable, as if - time taking. But time itself, doesn’t exist as we think it does. Its not stationary, its not movement. It is what we are, it’s what is cognising and it’s what cognising is. There is no other time that we know, other than this. 

Morning, afternoon and night are names for shades of brightness of 'Now'. There isn't 'a' Morning or 'a' afternoon or night in the sense of time. The durations are 'mind' games, translating an experience of change is a process 'in time'. All there is -is a sense of change. Within the given time, so many things changes so many ways. For example, a DAY means a lifetime to a mosquito, fraction of that to human, 10 lifetimes for a bacteria, nothing at all for a stone etc. So we are not actually seeing time, we are only sensing different experiences of change - some fast and some slow. A change is all that we experience, and all is happening to/in the 'Now'. This now doesnt have a sense of time. Its not that 'Now' is long or short. The durations felt or changes that are experienced , 'seem' long or short. Sleep seems 5 minutes, boredom seems hours etc. So all there is -is a magical experience for a change, which is translated by some thought or other mystical means as an experience of time. Time doesnt exist, Its a word for that which senses 'time' as experience of change or movement or duration.

So ticking of the clock is a movement in time or in cognition. Time, by itself just means cognising potential for change or movement, which is ‘life’ or ‘I am’ itself is.