We have come across many ideas shared in scientific and spiritual community which concludes Time to be an illusion, Reality to be an illusion and contexts on similar lines.
Last few days, I have been ruminating on this idea. Things are clearer now as what is going on here.
Let’s see if we can define some elements here to help make the picture clearer
- Content of perceptions currently perceived through senses. Let’s call it a Scene. So basically, Scene is one sample of data collection by our senses at a particular moment.
- Scene at present/current moment seems to be illuminated. In other words, there is sense of active Awareness for the Scene. Let’s call it a Flashlight.
- There is mechanism interpreting the Scene, trying to understand what’s perceived. Let’s call it Mind.
- There is yet another mechanism which further categorizes/labels/judges the scene basis on it’s conditioning as Correct/Incorrect, Happy/Sad, Profitable/Loss and so on. Let’s call it as “Thought“. Please see Thought is just another layer of Mind.
Closely examining the current NOW experiencing, we find
Our senses are bombarded with millions of perceptions every moment and we gather a momentary experience in the NOW moment. Series of similar experiences accumulated is what we call “Memories”.
Comparing the current NOW experience with one of the memories from the Past, we will notice there is an aliveness/focus on current NOW moment as compared the Past memory recollected. This focused Awareness or Flashlight is ever-present for all experiences in the NOW.
Even the past recollections or future imaginings are valid only in this current NOW moment with this active focused Awareness or Flashlight in place, implying past and future are imaginations in this current NOW moment.
What disturbs the liveliness of the NOW moment, is thoughts constantly layering ideas picked up from past memories and projecting some favorable outcome in the future. It’s like constantly clouding the NOW moment with meaningless illusory imaginings.
In my experience, during the thinking process distracted by ideas, the mind gets focused on a small point in consciousness. This leads one in missing out on the liveliness of the NOW moment. Absence of the thinking process opens up the Mind to more expanded consciousness.
We will try to understand more upon the thinking mechanism and if it’s possible to slow it down. Also, we will try to decode how ‘Thinking‘ mechanism and ‘Ego’ creation go together.
In summary, NOW alone exists with it’s open expanded consciousnesses springing up ever-new moments. However, this NOW moment is constantly clouded by thinking process perpetuated by ideas from memories and resulting future imaginings.