What Is Time?

You know we have this feeling and it's a very strong feeling that we keep having that you know time is running fast It's only a matter of time and a quarter of the year has passed.

It felt like yesterday that you did something but it was months ago and then there might be situations where you must have done that six months ago,

But You just don't remember it.

You don't remember doing it or you don't remember doing it only six months ago Like sometimes we feel like six months is a very short time and sometimes we feel that it was ages ago But it was only six months ago and six months is just an example.

I'm sure you have different emotions different Recognitions or feelings at different times.

Oh,

It's already the end of the weekend.

We dismiss this Feeling though we attribute this happening as a flaw in us that you know Time has been running away,

But I don't know where my time has been going or what I have been doing We don't really look into this glitch in the matrix that keeps happening once in a while We do get this especially on our birthdays on important days.

Oh,

I don't feel old everybody else Is aging but I'm not aging and when I say I am talking about our experience of ourselves Not the experience of our reflection in the mirror or the photograph or the wrinkles on our skin or White hair or lack of hair,

But just right now if you asked yourself,

Do I feel old?

I don't know what the response will be But once in a while we have this glitch that makes us feel and invariably all of us have felt this that time Has either gone very slow or time has gone very fast Or we have no idea where the time has gone if it has ever gone anywhere like I don't feel old feeling and just a smaller side even the feeling that I'm getting old is a very Circumstantial feeling when we are not able to remember something when we are not able to Perform physically mentally in a certain way.

We conclude I'm getting old but the experience Of being myself that we call I if you just based your observations on what that feels like Once in a while,

It happens like a gift from nature.

We don't feel old.

So what I want to discuss today Is this time slowing down time speeding up or time not passing and not as a concept?

I don't want to get into any debate But I just want to discuss what each of us can experience has experienced and then see what It can help us recognize for ourselves.

You can't have this discussion without asking the question What is time not the time that the clock shows or the calendar shows?

But what is my experience of time and what do I know to be the quote-unquote?

Normal quote-unquote normal speed of time i'm not denying the Practical aspect of time that helps us congregate at this time in one place But i'm talking about the experience of time and somehow it seems to be related to memory Because if we didn't have memory right now,

And we didn't have clocks or calendars our life will go on I will no longer be I will not be any less myself than I am without memory and without A clock like right now if I don't refer to my memory and I don't look at a clock my life is no No different I'm,

No different so try it for yourself.

See if you can Experience time without memory or without a clock and when I say memory Even the memory is saying.

Oh,

Yeah,

He said this A few minutes ago.

So yeah,

It must be no no more than two minutes That is still inference.

That is still memory.

I'm not saying memory is a bad thing All i'm saying is what is our experience of time without memory and why do I get these feelings once in a while?

That time is slow Or time is fast Or time doesn't seem to have passed.

This is not a trivial question even Entertaining this question and being here takes a lot of courage Because i'm trying to ask a question about something so fundamental In our lives that we have never even questioned that and could Potentially unravel our life,

But without Looking into something fundamental.

We are not going to be able to discover Another fundamental thing that we are all looking for all the time namely happiness and peace And somehow our experience or conceptual experience of time Namely past future Seems to influence our happiness in a huge way what has happened in the past.

We are suffering in the present What might happen in the future?

We are suffering in the present all that all that might be true at a relative level,

But the level that i'm speaking from and i'm speaking to Does not involve any relative levels So if our experience of time seems to be Running at different speeds and not because i'm saying it i'm sure all of us have gone through that.

Could it be?

That we might be operating under a principle of survival practical relative,

But the Desire that we have at our deepest level does not does not work with this level It comes from a more fundamental level of being Somehow when we were kids And we didn't understand this concept of past present future Weren't we happy?

Or maybe we are so happy that we didn't bother To look for happiness.

We were just having so much fun Isn't that why we are attracted to kids?

Could it be that we have learned these concepts?

For a survival reason and Let it run our entire life More than give you the answer.

I want to provoke This investigation in you And again,

I don't have the answer I do have a question Some questions end with a silence Because the answer is too much to encapsulate in words What if we didn't conflict?

Our experience of happiness or peace or harmony With the relative and practical levels of interaction and concepts and models that the society has built namely time past future And think about it.

We are so smart people How could we accept a place called past and a place called future without actually ever going there the hurts of the past which are only memories and we all know how limited our memories are we just capture a limited information through our senses and even very little do we recollect and yet we let that run our lives something that was done by someone years ago is still bothering us and our relationship is still hurting or the fear that something might happen based on some algorithm that our brain is running is enough for us to believe it and become anxious somehow that place we call the future is being experienced now through memories and we believe it but the memories are not in the future they are just in the now from a practical standpoint what we ate yesterday is going to affect our stomach today is going to affect our mood today,

Yes but that's a relative level I'm talking about the deeper level even when we ate something yesterday it was now and what is happening to our stomach is also now could it be that we don't really understand what time is the first person experience of time and when I say now I mean our experience right now although we don't have a clock we do experience now but somehow we equate the now to this second and as the seconds keep moving we think our now keeps moving but is that our experience is it like every second has a distinct change whether you go digital or analog one second ends,

Next second begins in your experience right now,

Check is there a place where this now ends and the next now begins we know when one second ends and the second second begins but is it our experience that this now has ended and the next now began and how long is this now it's like trying to measure the length on the ground and equating it to the length in space they are not even the same realms there is a beginning and end to ground is there a beginning and end to space and if our nows don't end and nows don't begin where is past if we don't know where the now has ended and if we don't know where the next now has begun where is this past and where is this trauma of the past the hurts of the past or where is this anxiety in the future could it all be a giant now I don't know but I don't experience a now ending and another now beginning yes I do have grey hairs I know this session will end but that's all a practical thing when I suffer I look into the past I project into the future and I'm scared now I'm incomplete now what if I didn't look in the past not because it's a scary place to look but it's a non-existent place to look and by non-existent I'm not denying that it never happened but whatever has happened has shaped us and if past hasn't happened in our experience of ourselves the third thing that I mentioned at the beginning that sometimes I don't feel like I have aged unless I infer it from something material,

Memory or performance maybe whatever has happened has not touched me has not aged me has not made me any more complete or any more incomplete all these questions arise when we start questioning the concept of time the experience of time and our suffering in the context of both what if we are fully complete the experiences that we continue to have are only like a movie that we watch neither the screen is affected in the movie neither the viewer is affected in the movie it's just happening food for thought thank you