Is time real?

[MikeS80]

Originally Posted by ayar415

Change. Everything changes: from a child to a wrinkled old man to a withering corpse disintegrating into dust. Change is perceivable through the comparison of "pictures" stored in the memory banks of consciousness or your computer hard drive.

Yes, change is the correct answer.

Physical Time has nothing to do with change, in the context of the NOW.

Physical laws like gravity causes change, as do our beliefs about time and health and the lack of beliefs causes change.

[MikeS80]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

Any suggestions are yours, not mine. There is a 'space' where there is no 'Now', no Absolute or anything else, because they too are mental constructs. There is just what IS, nothing more.

Definition of absolute
1a: free from imperfection : PERFECT
… it is a most absolute and excellent horse.
— William Shakespeare
b: free or relatively free from mixture : PURE
absolute alcohol
c: OUTRIGHT, UNMITIGATED
an absolute lie

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/absolute

I think we all agree that oneness-wholeness is perfect, pure, and outright, unmitigated. We humans become oneness-wholeness and therefore perfect, pure, and outright, unmitigated through and in the NOW!

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by MikeS80

Why hold on to the memory of the experience you had when you were 18 months, When that was the past, not the NOW?

Why? Cuz I'm very clear that it was cool and inspiring....and, guess what?
As I feel the inspiration and fun from then...it is in the moment 'now' that I am feeling it! Voila!

I am not some proponent of thinking I only want to be in the Now...
I'm commenting on things from my experience...in the past that were cool !

[ayar415]

Originally Posted by MikeS80

Physical Time has nothing to do with change, in the context of the NOW.

Is NOW a term you created to denote a realization of yours? If it is, then I would be interested in further inquiry into it with you. If not, could you please tell me the source and originator so that I can read up on the context of it.

[MikeS80]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Why? Cuz I'm very clear that it was cool and inspiring....and, guess what?
As I feel the inspiration and fun from then...it is in the moment 'now' that I am feeling it! Voila!

I am not some proponent of thinking I only want to be in the Now...
I'm commenting on things from my experience...in the past that were cool !

Well, you are the one that says everything you see is unreal/an illusion/maya. So you say that, but you don't actually fully believe it. If you really and fully believe that, you will think what you see is cool and inspiration to also be unreal/an illusion/maya too.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by MikeS80

Well, you are the one that says everything you see is unreal/an illusion/maya.
So you say that, but you don't actually fully believe it.
If you really believe that, you will think what you see is cool and inspiration to also
be unreal/an illusion/maya too.

And I do.

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

And I do.

Including mind-body. Lila. The Divine Play of Consciousness.

[MikeS80]

Originally Posted by ayar415

Is NOW a term you created to denote a realization of yours? If it is, then I would be interested in further inquiry into it with you. If not, could you please tell me the source and originator so that I can read up on the context of it.

I did not read any books about the NOW. The NOW is you realizing that you are neither the past nor future, and the NOW is realizing that the time the clock says it is, does not matter at all, because whatever time the clock says it is, is and will always be the NOW.

[snowyowl]

Originally Posted by MikeS80

What do you have to re-read to grasp?

Alas this thread moves faster than my rather slow contemplative reading style. I'm re-reading to try to see your meaning in my direct experience, but this takes longer than a conceptual understanding.

Most of the time my awareness appears to be in a state of flow, processes in motion, thoughts progressing. The meaning of a sentence becomes clear towards the end, when the first words are 'past', but are still necessary for the 'now' words to make sense. I've heard references (in another forum) to the Buddhist Abhidhamma which posits Now in terms of mind-moments, long enough glimpses of time for the mind to cognise and process the basic building blocks of its activity. That makes a kind of sense too. When I sit by a river and watch it flow past, it's inconceivable that the river is actually static and I'm only imagining the moment before when the water was only a few inches upstream. A river is a river because it's flowing. But perhaps I'm not doing justice to the 'Now is the only reality' philosophy.

Could be this flow is what gives rise to the theoretical idea of time, especially when dealing with repetitive cycles which we can count?

At other rarer times in deep meditation, sitting in stillness, quietness, when there's no movement, a sensory deprivation arises and 'flow' drops away to reveal a vast spaciousness, eternity, emptiness. Is that Nowness? I dunno, I like phrases such as 'the here and now' and 'the present moment' but any time I settle on a word or phrase to name this mystical experience I realise it has shortcomings. So I avoid having a favourite and adopt a scattergun approach, to at least try to avoid reifying it.

[MikeS80]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Including mind-body. Lila. The Divine Play of Consciousness.

Tell me, What is the point of consciousness, when you think what consciousness is conscious of, is unreal/illusion/maya? That whole premise negates and contradicts consciousness.