Thoughts On Time
Tue May 6, 2008 5:04 am
Spiritual Principles -- Principle 64 -- Time
Questions on Time:
What is time and the principle behind it?
What is the difference between time and timelessness?
What's the relation between time and consciousness?
Answer:
Time is motion and the rate at which time passes is
determined by the rate of conscious perception. The reason our
smallest standard unit of measurement of time is a second is because
it takes about a second for the average person to register an event
in his consciousness.
Now we can perceive an event that takes place
in as little as about a 64th of a second, but it still takes about a
second to register it in our waking consciousness.
In other words, one cannot see 64 images in one second and register
them all in that second. He can generally only register one.
But let us suppose that you could register 64 images in one second.
Because your consciousness sped up time would slow down. What would
seem like a moment to a regular human would seem like over an hour in
your quickened state.
The sped up state does not represent higher consciousness but usually
lower consciousness. For instance, have you notice how little lives
seem to react very quickly? When you spot a mouse and it flees it
reacts quicker than any human. Then watch the insect world. They
react exceedingly fast. The reason is that they are registering
events quicker than we are and consequently live in a different time
reality.
The heartbeat of a living organism is very closely linked with time.
The faster the heart rate the more rapidly time passes, but this has
the effect of making an hour or a minute seem longer.
You can experiment with yourself on this. Rest for five minutes and
read a book or watch TV. Because you are at rest your heart rate
will be slow and time will proceed at a normal pace. Now go run for
five minutes and get your heart rate up to double speed. I assure
you that the five minutes of double heart rate will seem like ten
minutes when resting.
People joke about dog years and cat years, but they are indeed
different. The life of a dog seems to last as long to it as the
average life of a human. Then if we examine the macrocosm, such as
planet earth, its heart would eat once about every two years. This
would give one an idea of how a planetary life may register time
which is different than the Planetary Logos.
Time is also dependent on size for when one is reduced in size the
amount of distance traveled is less. Think back to the Grand Tour in
my book "Eternal Words"
and how consciousness had to adapt to new time perception as size was reduced. We can see
this somewhat in our own lives. Remember when you were a little tyke and how long a day
seemed to be, particularly the night before Christmas. That seems to
a kid like three days to an adult. This is not just caused by
imagination but reality.
Older people also complain that time seems to go faster. It is
interesting that their responses are also slower. But their response
rate does not seem as slow to them as it does to their young friends
because the two register time differently. They have recently done
experiments on this and have shown this to be true.
Time also exists in the worlds of form
we enter after death, but the reckoning is different. Even so time moves forward in the physical,
even though physical time is not measured there.
The question arises as to whether there is time in the formless
worlds. When seekers enter the formless through mediation it seems
as if they have entered a timeless state. This seems to be true, but
is not quite true. No matter what state one enters time is always
passing in the worlds of form.
To understand in part consider the passage of time when you are in a
dreamless sleep. Your consciousness is in the formless, but time is
still going by and when you awaken you are not sure how much time has
passed but you have a rough sense of it.
Consider this. Form comes from the formless and thus time does also.
Time therefore exists in the formless as the motion of divine thought
and the movement of energy. A certain movement of energy in the
formless would correspond to a certain movement of time here on the
earth.
Conclusion:
The principle behind time then is motion, and its rate of passing is
determined by the consciousness that perceives it.
"When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and
that's the dictator, because he speaks for all the people. But in a
democracy like Israel, there is a wide range of opinions and that
counterbalances the disappointment that I have in not meeting with
the people shaping Israeli power now in the government."
-- Jimmy Carter
Word of the Day
Blooter -- A babbler or foolish person.
Suggested Reading:
Spiritual Principles
Copyright © 2008 by JJ Dewey, All Rights Reserved
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