Time and Inner Time
We have always been bothered about time — how many times have you said or heard the statement, “I don’t have time!” Umpteen times, I bet! What is it about time that both fascinates as well as bothers us? I remember as a child that time would move very slowly, but as I grew up the hours just flew! When we are doing something that we enjoy, we find that time just flies and when we are in trouble, time appears to stand agonisingly still! We keep looking at the clock and see that the minute hand has hardly moved!
When we are in love with someone and so deeply engrossed in sweet nothings — time has no meaning as we are lost in our own cocooned world. When we are doing something that we love, something creative, then too we are in our own world and time has no meaning — it just flies, we don’t feel the pangs of hunger, or anything else as we continue doing what we love. On the other hand, when we are stressed because of any reason, then we worry about the future and we notice the clock is moving very slowly.
If you look at time scientifically then time is just an illusion, there is no such thing as time, time is a human psychological construction which arises out of our need to make sense of the changing universe around us. We ‘invented’ time so that we could have a reference point to look back into the past and dream about the future — this is because of our ability to think and remember thus forming memories. So, if you think deeply about this — time exists not, but it does so only in our minds. Our fear of death also defines time for us — because if we have unfulfilled desires and we run out of time we take birth again to fulfill those desires.
But once we start meditating, once we start becoming a witness then external time stops holding any meaning — our inner time starts taking hold, in fact in deep states of meditation we reach a state of no mind and therefore no time!
Sit quietly and witness the mind, watch it. The moment you start watching you will be deluged with thoughts and all kinds of memories, but slowly as one penetrates a little deeper, you will start experiencing gaps — silent spaces of no thought — this will take some time, but one can experience that the innermost core of our being is coming closer. That innermost core of our existence is timelessness, where both time and space don’t exist!
