To most of us time is inexorable, moving like an unstoppable conveyor belt. We normally think that we live within time and space, both of which are absolute. But Albert Einstein showed us that this is not necessarily true. He showed us that time (as well as space) is relative and plastic.
Einstein discovered that time varies with the rate of speed one is traveling. At the speeds we usually travel, the change is minuscule. But at speeds approaching the of the velocity of light, time flows different relative to one who is standing still. If one were traveling at 99% the speed of light, one year for that person would be the same length of time as ten years for someone here on earth.
Einstein also determined that gravity affects time. The closer to the center of the earth you are, the slower time will travel. If you lived on the first floor of a 100-story building and your friend lived on the 100th floor, then time would travel more slowly for you than it would for your friend-- however, the difference would be minute.
But for a satellite that circles above the earth, time travels faster for it than it does for us living here on earth. The difference is significant enough that it must be the considered in the GPS guidance systems; otherwise, the instructions we are given would be inaccurate -- which would be quite problematic!
Another challenge to our conventional sense of time comes from those spiritual teachings that tell us to live only in “the now.” But the mind cannot grasp the present moment. To the mind, time is like a river that never stops flowing. “Now” seems only theoretical because it is as fleeting as a ghost.
And yet every experience that you have ever had took place in the present moment. You cannot see, taste or touch anything in the past or the future-- all experience can take place only in the present. That which you call, “my life,” consists of a series of experiences. So, your entire life takes place in the present moment ––there is nothing else.
Someone could say, “Perhaps the future is imaginary, but certainly the past is real; I can remember it very clearly. And what is more, I can have someone else validate that memory.” They might even have a video recording of that event to validate their memory. Would this not prove that the past is real?
The short answer is, “No.” If you look at a video recording, then your experience of seeing is taking place in the present moment. And, when the event seen on the tape occurred, it was in the present moment. We can look at images made at a time we now call the past, but the images were created in the present moment and can be viewed only in the present moment.
Experiences may be sequenced just as the pages in a book are sequenced. You may go backward or forward in the book but no matter what page you are reading, you can read it only in the present moment.
The present moment has no beginning and no end. It always was and always will be ”Now.” That which has no beginning and no end in time we call “eternal.” We live and die in the eternity of the present moment; there is no other place in which we can live.
We can have ideas known as “past” and “future” as useful tools that help us function in the world and ensure our survival. Let us say you are a Paleolithic hunter. You will need to learn and remember the habit patterns of certain animals so that you can predict where they will be in the future so you can ambush and kill them for food.
Your very survival will depend upon your ability to remember and to predict. As humans became more sophisticated with language, the words “past and future” became associated with this process of remembering and predicting.
Even today we need to learn from the past and be able to predict certain aspects of the future. This is still necessary for our survival, whether it is forecasting the weather or investing in the stock market.
The mind invented time to help us survive. As such, time is an extremely useful concept. But it is only a concept. You may need to think in terms of past or future and yet still know that you can experience life only in the present moment—beyond time.