Everything exists at the same time, happening continuously

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Originally Posted by Jesus of Suburbia

Time isn't an actual, physical thing, but rather the way that our mind sees things. This is proved by the existence of the 4th dimension in string theory.

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Time exists in relation to physical entities, only physical entities can interact with other physical entities so time is a physical reality.

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Originally Posted by Dannon Oneironaut

. You cannot enjoy life if you are constantly thinking "about" life, or anything.

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I disagree.

... and my ignorance has reared its ugly head once again! Thanks for explaining that though. Guess I shouldn't bring things up if I really don't know what I'm talking about.

Maybe some quantum theories try to say that, but Schrodinger's cat is an example of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics in which two states (the cat being alive and dead) can exist simultaneously.

*WHOAH* :eek:

... You just proved time is an illusion! How did your post... the post I already read and responded to, move to under mine? :?

cause I hate the "last edited" thing under the post -_- lol

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Originally Posted by DarkComrade

Time is but the sunrise and sunset

All we are doing is measuring movement

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That's what I was trying to get at in my post, but I don't think I did a very good job at it.

To the OP, yes I agree that the perception of time is an illusion

When you meditate, and your mind is deeply in the present, it may feel like time has slowed down, that's why people who meditate or people who are present a lot look younger than they really are, and age much slower

Depending on how deep your concentration is on the things your being mindful of, they will seem like the only thing that exist to you. It's kind of hard to explain. Everything else that you aren't paying attention to has drifted away. A good feeling, like a vacation for the mind

I don't see how this can be explained logically, imho it can only be experienced

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Originally Posted by Wayfaerer

A part of me understood and believed what you were saying, but another part was conflicted with the thought of "what about natural phenomena?" If the now only truly ever exists and past and future have no true reality to them, why is it that we observe so many phenomena and predictable patterns? How is it that we can predict things will happen in the future's "now" from the past's "now" so well? So I think while we experience time with it's cause and effect phenomena, there's another way of experiencing existence. If you try to experience life only through the now, minimizing thoughts, past and future, concepts of self and other "things" only being receptive to immediate experience, "riding on the razors edge of now" time phenomena might as well not exist from your reference. Since the amount energy/matter is conserved and cannot be created or destroyed, at any one moment the essence of the universe is unchanged. Phenomena through time is the perceived morphing of this essence through the concept of self and separate "things" but to be aware of the now is to be aware of and even to be the whole essence itself, that is essentially unchanged at any one moment. This seems to be the natural state of an infant, no concept of self or past and future, just in a timeless, unmanifested "oneness" with the the universe, a direct product of the perpetual creative force of "now" receptive only to immediate experience. Of course time seems very real and seems to be an essential part of our existence as well so there seems to be a working paradox here between time and the unchanged essence of existence that we can sway our attention back and forth by degrees.

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Yes! You get it. All the phenomena of shapes, colors, sounds, smells, sensations, etc. are all transitory illusions giving the illusion of time, from the perspective of absolutely pure perception. The essence is unchanging. The essence is timeless. It is always present. It appears that the Universe has been created a long time ago at the beginning of time. But, in fact, it is created NOW constantly. Or at least it is sustained NOW by the essence. Without the essence there is no time, there is no Universe, there is no phenomena. But if you take away Time, the Universe, all phenomena and thought, you are left with the essence as it is. When you recognize the essence you will be with the ones who have recognized it through all time, past and future, all sitting together around the fire. This fire (that is what I call the mystery beyond space and time around which the beings sit who recognize it. But they always come back. The way to transcend even that is to jump into the fire and let it consume you. That is how you become one with the essence and dissolve all phenomena and become the stuff the Universe is made of without losing the awareness of yourself as the whole timeless essence. Then everywhere is this fire and only this fire.) always exists here and now in the very heart of your being shining out through everything that appears to exist giving it reality.

But there is also a relative reality, which you nailed, that time appears very real, that the Universe appears very real, and this is the paradox that is at the heart of every philosophical idea. This paradox is in music, art, science, mysticism, atoms, Universes, etc. In everything this same paradox lives. And this paradox is what makes this whole thing possible. And this is why there are so many avenues to knowledge. When things seem contradictory, like there is no time, but there is, that place where the two contradictions meet and become one is where the real truth is. It is the Tao. That is why arguing and converting are so useless, because nobody is right but they both are.