Is time real?

[MikeS80]

Originally Posted by ayar415

If it is, then being in the "NOW" is that crucial step of "fundamental change" in consciousness. Such a change would set one on the right track that does not lead to dire circumstances of the material world.

You do not need (to force yourself) to be in the NOW, you are already in the NOW.

It is more accurate and truthful to tell you to erase all the false and negative tracks you have laid down for yourself, not to lay some more false and negative tracks for yourself. What is false/not true creates all fear, negativity etc. It is not about the superficial opposites like negative/positive, love/fear-hate etc, it is all about truth and what is not true or truth that is misunderstood.

The NOW is the truth/reality, so don't just think you are the NOW, feel that you are the NOW, with all your feelings. The NOW is who you truly are!

[ayar415]

Originally Posted by MikeS80

All you can do is know that you are the NOW, not the past or future, and that the NOW (the NOW is you individually, the divine and everything else) provides. Anything is possible in the NOW, even miracles!

Hahaha. Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. Grandma used to take me to Novena once a week. And then there is Lourdes. I ran into a bunch of Americans going to a Satya Sai Baba ashram when I was in Chennai. That guy could even raise the dead, they said.

Why bother figuring out if time is real. It is easier to fall down on your knees and pray.

[snowyowl]

Originally Posted by MikeS80

The NOW is the truth/reality, so don't just think you are the NOW, feel that you are the NOW, with all your feelings. The NOW is who you truly are!

Maybe I'm conceptualising too much, but ... the concept of 'Now' or the present exists in contrast with past and future. If you say the past/future aren't real, don't exist, then what meaning is left for the Now?

In any case, how long is Now? If it lasts 1 millisecond, you could still chop that millisecond up into a past, present, future, many times, until nothing is left of Now and it vanishes to zero, like a Greek paradox (was it Zeno?).

So I'm left thinking that in spiritual circles, we use 'Now' as another code name for the Absolute, Ultimate Reality. Synonymous with words like Being, God, Nonduality, Unconditional Love. Words which attempt to propel us out of conceptualisation and analysis, and into pure contemplation. There's still a place for rational analysis; but what confuses me is that we use the same words in both contexts (conventional and mystical). Mike, is that why you capitalise it as 'NOW' to make a distinction?

[Still_Waters]

QUOTE 232 EXCERPT:

Originally Posted by ayar415

Why bother figuring out if time is real. It is easier to fall down on your knees and pray.

Pray to whom/what and for what?

I do agree, however, with your question about "why bother figuring out if time is real". Nonetheless, the issue has been raised and it is indeed an interesting topic in the realm of mental fabrications ... especially since I personally had so much difficulty at one time in understanding what it meant to transcend time and space. Like yourself, I have a very high intellectual mindset as per the ultimately meaningless academic and social standards.... and that turned out to be a formidable obstacle to remaining firmly established in the clear vision.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by ayar415

... The wretched widow with 5 kids and not on good terms with her landlord is toast.
How does one reconcile this with non-duality

Well, don't think for a min I don't care about these people and others in need and I do take action.

If I may, it reminds me of a story Paramahansa Yogananda told
remembering his life as a single mother with many children in poverty.
He had been a yogi and devotee other lives...but THAT life he learned the most about trusting God.

Sometimes, maybe always, these situations exist to wake others up to feel more compassion and stop being selfish.
There is a bigger picture here for the whole of the planet to advance, from what I understand.
Is the homeless guy on the corner just some homeless guy?
Or is he in front of me, for me, 'as the least of these', doing something for God Himself..
a big message from a Master we all know....to tie this into the 'we are all one/non-duality topic'.

Here:
In Matthew 25 KJV
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

[MikeS80]

Originally Posted by snowyowl

[font="Times New Roman"][size="3"] Maybe I'm conceptualising too much, but ... the concept of 'Now' or the present exists in contrast with past and future. If you say the past/future aren't real, don't exist, then what meaning is left for the Now?

You have that backwards-the past and future exists in contrast to the NOW.

The past and future are ideas/concepts created by the mind. The NOW is infinite oneness-wholeness, and is beyond the mind, yet is the mind at the same time. Physical time is not the problem, as physical time is not in conflict or in contradiction with the NOW. Physical time is the NOW, and vice versa. Our memories and sometimes our imaginations create the past, and our imaginations create the future, which we want to happen to give us comfort. The NOW does not make the past and future a reality to us, we make the past and future a reality to ourselves.

The NOW is the silver bullet to everything that is false/not truth. Brahman/God/the Tao, Source, oneness, wholeness, non-duality etc etc are all abstract concepts of the same thing, and that is the NOW.

[MikeS80]

Originally Posted by ayar415

Why bother figuring out if time is real. It is easier to fall down on your knees and pray.

How has praying been working out for you? My guess is not good. Otherwise you would not be in the situation you find yourself in. Besides you asked me the question, I did not ask you the question.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by MikeS80

How has praying been working out for you?
My guess is not good. Otherwise you would not be in the situation you find yourself in.

I know, I know you're speaking to ayar, who I believe is in a pretty darn good situation from what he says...
but I gotta say, prayer works for me every time (except that one time, not my fault, lol).

[MikeS80]

Originally Posted by snowyowl

So I'm left thinking that in spiritual circles, we use 'Now' as another code name for the Absolute, Ultimate Reality. Synonymous with words like Being, God, Nonduality, Unconditional Love.

The NOW is the most accurate description/word of the absolute, ultimate reality, oneness-wholeness,which we are able to fully know and understand. It is impossible to misunderstand, misconstrue, and twist the NOW, and to mislead others and to be misled with the NOW. The NOW is simply being free of the concepts/ideas of the past and future. We hold onto our internal mental and emotional conditioning/programing by identify with our past and future

There is room for peoples imaginations to be wrong and manipulated with and by the abstract/subjective spiritual/religous words, descriptions, labels, concepts of God, Absolute, Ultimate Reality etc.

[ayar415]

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

I do agree, however, with your question about "why bother figuring out if time is real". Nonetheless, the issue has been raised and it is indeed an interesting topic in the realm of mental fabrications ... especially since I personally had so much difficulty at one time in understanding what it meant to transcend time and space.

I like your QUOTE 232 EXCERPT reference. It's helpful.

Ok, you seem smart and serious enough. I will share this with you. MikeS80 explanation of "NOW" is part of the non-duality state. It's like the leg of an elephant that a blind man has held and is describing the whole animal (i.e. non-duality state) in terms of that leg (timelessness). What about another animal part, namely space which is another dimension of our world of duality? NOW is timelessness. In that state, will space also disappear?

One time, I was looking out to sea on a yacht. There was a hint of rain and I could feel a fine descending mist. A huge magnificent rainbow started to form and I could see it growing. One end of it was several hundred yards away on the water while the other was touching the horizon. I thought to myself that the other end must be 20 miles away (which is how far the horizon is supposed to be). The rainbow kept growing from a grand arch in the sky until both rainbow ends met to form a giant two-dimensional, circular, color band hanging in the air before me. All sense of space disappeared because there was no visual depth of field, no way to make reference to anything. Those several moments were awesome in a scary way. Duality reasserted itself when the color ring faded away.

Now, you explain my experience. What happened?