Time

Consider the idea that time is an illusion. In the novel Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse, the protagonist explains that he has realized that time does not exist, that past, present and future all exist simultaneously, that our childhood, our present life and our future are one and the same. All things are unified and the same. How does this work? I understand that the child we once were still lives in us and the old man or woman that we will one day be already lives in us. The child is still part of us; I retain much of my childhood character, but have become more sensible, more reasonable, more mature and understanding. I will be even more sensible and reasonable and understanding as an old man, but the young man I am now will still be a part of me then. I understand that character traits don’t change much over a lifetime. But still, how can time be an illusion? Does that mean change is an illusion? It can’t. We certainly change as people. We go from seekers to receivers, ambitious youngsters to patient elders. At least, many of us do. I suppose some people never stop seeking, never cease to be ambitious. But most of us change. How can we change unless we change over time? How else are we to organize the events of our lives? It’s just something I can’t totally get my head around. If we did away with clocks and sundials and calendars, wouldn’t time still exist? Maybe not. Maybe only change would. In fact, I think this is true. Only change would exist. What is time, anyway? A measurement of what? Before anyone had thought of time, what was life like? It was the same, without the thought of time. There would have been no consciousness about it, no sense of urgency, no scheduling, no worry about doing this and this before this set time. Life would have been very different, indeed. We always worry about life being so short, and fear that we will not have enough time to do everything we want to do. There it is again, that word time. It’s hard to talk about time without using the word time. I’m having difficulty with that. How do you define time? Webster’s Dictionary defines time as “the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues.” But why is it important to measure that period? It is only important to do so if we want to do a certain number of things in a given period. If all we have to do is one thing, then time is not important. Time only becomes important when we talk about the relationship of one event to another, when one event has to succeed another. For ambitious people, then, who want to accomplish certain events in a certain order, time is important. The duration of each event must be managed accordingly so that all events can be accomplished. But if we have no goals, time is not important at all. Only life is important, however long it lasts. Time was devised for people who are seekers, for goal-oriented people, which describes most of us in this world, whatever the goal may be. For monks, though, and holy men like Siddhartha in the aforementioned novel, time is of zero importance, because they seek to accomplish nothing. They have emptied their minds and are completely receptive to nature. They are eternally patient, waiting for whatever learning comes to them. There is no rush. They have nothing else to do but meditate and listen. How could time be important to them? But for me, time is very important, because I have many things I need to do. Time is important for people who need to make money to support themselves. Time is important because one needs to know how long the food he has will last. Therefore, time is important to everyone, even these monks. But they don’t think of it in the same way. For them, they think, I am hungry, I will eat until I am no longer hungry. They don’t think, I need to go to the store and get this much food for the week (a measurement of time). Everything is immediate for them, there is no planning. So time does not really exist, then, except in our minds. But does anything really exist, then, except in our minds? How do we know?
8/13/08