Time Expanded

I love the concept of time because it is so perplexing, interesting, and confusing all at once. We have our ways of "keeping" time, our scientific theories, our philosophical theories, what spiritual texts tell us- so many different ways of viewing time. Anyway, I'm not trying to discuss all the theories about time, but, rather, talk about what my concept of time is. Anything outside the ideas of time we've built for ourselves (the sun goes up, the sun goes down- we have a past, present, and future that are separate from each other, etc.) is hard to grasp, but I'm going to offer the symbolism I came up with and you can see what you think.

One of the first "spiritual" concepts of time that I read about talked about all time existing simultaneously and that time doesn't move, we are the ones that move through it. The symbol given for it was a stack of papers. Each paper represents a single moment, and the papers stacked on top of each other symbolize time. If all instances in time play themselves out all at once, stacked on top of each other, could we classify a past, present, and future? This is where the idea of the stacks of paper gets iffy- because you could say that the pages could be numbered and stacked in a specific order. But, then again, they are still existing at the same time, occupying the same space, and not one of those papers is being shown ahead of another.

Confusing? It took me awhile to grasp it, too!

Because of the way time exists, there can't be such a thing as a "past" life- because it implies that something came before and something will come last. Going back to the stacks of paper, and viewing time as "simultaneous", each of our past lives can be represented by a single sheet. They are all happening at once because we are multi-dimensional. Being in the physical world makes is easy for us to view life in constraints because the human body is similar to a cage. Does that mean a part of us can't be somewhere else at the same time? No! When you read a book, and you're reading page 7, does that mean the rest of the pages don't exist because you're only focusing on one page? So my idea of this is that all of our lives happen all at once, we are simply focusing on one single life, concentrating our awareness to one time frame, for the purpose of learning whatever we need to learn.

We tend to think linear- that everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end. That when you learn something, you are more knowledgeable and cannot possibly revert back to "not knowing" about it. However, we can forget. Just because I am wise like Buddha in one lifetime, does not mean I cannot choose to forget and become simple-minded and hateful in a "future" lifetime. How would is be possible, then, to have a "past" life?

Here is my symbol that helped me realize the concept of time: a video game. Yes, I love playing them and, yes, they are great symbols! I believe there is a lot of truth to the idea "so within, so without". We've created a lot of physical things that represent hidden spiritual truths. To me, video games symbolize time. Time exists all at once, the same way a complete video game exists all at once on a disc. A lot of video games have levels. So you start out at level one and your character is dumb (it knows nothing of what is going on) and weak (it easily gets killed and/or can't do very many things). But, just because you are on level one, does that mean the last level isn't on the disc at the same time? So you play the game and advance, getting smarter, stronger, and closer to the end of the game. Once you've beaten the game, everything is unlocked and you are now free to go anywhere in the game if you want, even back to level one. Same as time. Once you've realized what time is, and have the skill to move through it, you can go anywhere, to any level and time, even if it's to a place where you were "weaker".

The great thing about video games is that if you fail, you can go back and redo it. If time is simultaneous, why couldn't you go back and re-live a life time to get a better outcome? On a video game disc, all outcomes exist at the same time, how you play determines where you end up. And you can always go back and play through a different outcome. Time holds the same wonder. All possible outcomes of any given action or thought exist all at once, and you decide which outcome you want to play through.

Time is stagnant, like an infinite road. It contains all that is in one single moment. We move through time based on where we are focusing our awareness, or, rather, our consciousness.

Time is that beautiful thing that gives us our endless possibilities.