Time Out of Mind

We live in a physical world which, according to our physicists, is made up of trillions upon trillions of atoms, all moving, but at the same time, to our limited perceptions, looking very solid all the same. To most of us this definition of the world is not something we normally tend to think about, much less understand. We move through this atom filled world in a linear way, which gives us the concept of time. We come into this life in a very small human body, which through linear time, matures and eventually wears out. Our perception of existence is the determining factor for all of this. What would happen if all of us suddenly decided that this perception was completely incorrect and actually believed it one hundred percent? Would we cease to exist, or would our entire existence transform into an entirely different form of life?
Most of us have had the experience of day “feeling” longer than usual, and also the opposite. We speak to each other of weekends feeling “too short”, or a weekday that seemed to drag on forever. This would seem to back up the theory that time is dictated by our own perceptions. When we are working hard at something that seems tedious, we perceive a day to seem as if it goes on forever, but when we’re doing something we like, the day seems to go too fast. What if we all decided that there was no time and that only the present moment existed, each moment? This perception would approach the concept of the non-physical ‘spirit’ that we read about in all of the spiritual literature throughout the world.
For those of you who meditate, these ideas may not seem so strange, as scientific research has documented the subjective experiences of some meditators who mentioned they felt “timeless” during a deep meditation. Try an experiment. Find 15-20 minutes in your day, preferably in the morning, or just before going to bed at night, to just sit, close your eyes, and calm your thoughts. Make sure there are no clocks or smart phones or anything that shows the time visible to you. As you sit, try to notice if you can determine how much time has passed without looking at any type of time keeping device. It just might be an enlightening experience.