The Test of Time

Questions abound...

It appears that when we observe things, experiences and so on they are experiencing changes which we mark with measurements or increments of time. Yet exploring the notion of time we have yet to find that it exists beyond a relative framework. For that matter, all of what we term the world has no real existence beyond our conceptions of it. Examining each thing we encounter including our own thoughts will readily show us this. So if there is no time beyond our relative experience of it...and still it is a concept....the fading of a flower is only a comparison of our memory of that flower and its faded form in the moment of perception. Exploring the notion of the past we can see that the past does not exist anywhere in that it is not an arbitrary location that we can travel to except within the framework of our perceptions of it. Examine your experiences of the past. It is all memory. Even if you were to present me with a receipt stating the date and time of a purchase made a month ago, that is NOT the past, that is not the collection of moments in which I spent shopping for those items. Indeed, those moments and only a fraction of them are available to the conscious mind are trapped like flies in amber. Like the amber which has hardened from its once pliable form, these moments are still pictures or at best short vignettes of that experience. And the images, the thoughts are NOT that experience. Which brings me to a question...do we truly experience time? Given that my impressions of it are that its nature is illusory and that I am told that I experience time by calendars, watches, clocks and so forth, can I truly say that time itself is fact, is truth? Yes I can, and have watched the movements of the stars, the sun and the moon. Their great slow procession across my perception of the sky. Yet in the moment of watching fully there is no movement, and yet much movement. I'm questioning a notion upon which civilizations are built and I realize that may be uncomfortable for some. Many are secure in the idea that the sun rises and sets even though its not really doing so. I am venturing to the cliffs though, in search of truth. The truth that the present moment is. That appearances are like bubbles or dreams. More musings later...