Time and Memory through the Lens of Nonduality

We've all heard someone say that time is relative. Or even that there is no such thing as time.

But hold on a second!

What does that really mean?

If you try to get a straight answer out of anyone, you don't get one. Even the physicists, they can't quite give you a conclusive answer. What does it really mean?

And then you have those celebrity gurus go up on stage and say,

"There's only now! This present moment."

And you just have to arrive in this moment and everything will be well. There's no time.

But that guru cannot get to the end of a sentence without proving time.

Time is just a measure of change.

There can be no conversation, no experience, without the perception of change. So, the actual understanding here, the understanding of the true sages who have seen through the illusion of space and time, is a bit more subtle.

Let me try to share it with you.

This understanding does not depend on a denial of time and change, and the amazing diversity and variety of this world, of experiences and memories.

All of that is included in this understanding.

You see, it is not that time is unreal, but that it is an emergent phenomena. That it is not not the Ultimate Reality. And that underlying time and space is what is more real.

Fundamentally real. Not the relative but the Absolute Reality.

And because this Reality is not dependent on time, does not exist at a certain point in the past or the future, it means that if you can find just one aspect in this moment that is real, you are finding your way to that most fundamental Reality.

What is most real in this moment, is what is most real in any moment.

And even by talking about moments we're again smuggling in time here. But that is fine. Because if we're honest, the passing of time is your current experience. And what we're looking to do is to pierce through this perception of time, and see what is the Absolute.

Non-local, not relative, but the Ultimate; the truly real.

This question is where the mystic's journey begins.

That yearning to know, what is real?

It usually begins with what is called an Awakening Experience.

But the name isn't quite right. There's no waking up. It is the point where the dream is pierced by something inexplicable. Something that can't be explained in this model of time and space and individuals living their separate little lives.

This is what begins the journey. The questioning of what is real.

And if you apply this questioning rigorously to everything you know of; your entire world, your inner and outer world, you find that none of it is absolutely real. All of it depends on time. All of it is relative and subjective.

Dependent on observation from a certain point in space. Transient and most definitely bound to end.

There's no doubt in anyone's mind on this; that this life must end.

Seeing this clearly can be quite distressing at first.

Because most lives are lived in denial of this fact. It is known, but somewhere at the back of the mind. That fear of death, the fear of losing what you love, the urgency of doing all that you want before time runs out, the nostalgia of leaving things behind. All of that is there, but it is not often at the forefront of the mind.

But this questioning of what is real, really takes out the floor from under your feet. And now you're free falling, and you're questioning everything.

And you arrive on this fact that you can't deny your own existence.

You try to.

As you question everything, you even question your own self. And you try to deny your own existence. But it doesn't quite work.

And this is where there is a branching off; of the ones who keep falling and falling and falling.

Because they keep trying to do what is impossible. To deny the one fact which points to the Absolute.

The fact is that even if all this is relative and subjective, even if it is unreal like a dream or a simulation, despite all that, the fact is that you are real. Even if you're a dream character or a simulation, the fact remains that you are conscious.

And the fact that you are conscious, proves that at least something about you is real.

That which is conscious, is most definitely real.

At the very core of you, is what is real. As real as it gets.

And from here it is simple. What is most real about you is this capacity to know. This quality of being aware. This is your most essential and inseparable essence.

The very core of you is this Aware-ness itself.

And in seeing that this is most definitely real, no matter the nature of the world around you; whether it is there, whether it's a dream or a simulation, whatever. this awareness is most definitely real.

Once you see it this way, it is quite obvious that time and space are secondary to this most fundamental Reality.

There's a kind of hierarchy here. There's the world and the objects in it. And the subjective phenomena; the feelings, and the thinking, and the memories, and so on. All of these depend on time and space.

And this time and space that you experience is subjective. It depends on the state of being conscious. It depends on consciousness. And consciousness itself is really a state that depends on this quality of being aware.

This Aware-ness. That is You.

This Aware-ness is most real and common to all experience. To all streams of consciousness. And is the basis for all of it.

It's not limited to a point in space, or durations in time. It is not subject to change.

This is what you were searching for!

You are what you seek.

Thou art That.

I am that I AM.

Form is Emptiness, and Emptiness is form.

So, this is the hierarchy that becomes clear.

The layers of the onion. There's this world; your world. This subjective world. Existing in a time and space that itself is subjective.

Dependent on consciousness. And the state of consciousness depending on this most fundamental Awareness. The Sentience that precedes all these phenomena and on which they all depend.

Now, there is a confounding factor here.

Because memories and thoughts are telling you a very different story of what you are. If you add to this core Reality; this Awareness that You are, all these memories and character traits and so on, that is mixing up what is real with what is clearly transient and dependent on time. This is mixing up what is real with what is relative, and deriving from it an identity. A belief of being an individual conscious entity.

And this individuality, this idea of being one among many, is responsible for all psychological suffering. The fear of losing, the desire for more, the dependence on time, on this one life to achieve all you want, to enjoy all you desire.

So, more than overcoming time, you have to see through these memories. See what it is they really are.

See, there is this idea, that is the consensus belief, that memories are stored somewhere in this body. But even the neuroscientists can't tell you where. The neurons don't have any place to store memories. They just turn on and off.

They absorb ions and release them. They are quite simple in fact. Like capacitors.

But we haven't given up yet. There are many theories of where memories might be stored.

But if you look at it clearly; with the eye of the sage, look at it in your own experience, you will see very clearly that memories are not stored anywhere. They're always created fresh.

You can't really bottle up an experience. Even a perfume only contains the chemicals.

The scent only emerges when there is smelling. That is the contact between the material, or the physical and the relative, and the Absolute.

It is the patterns of what is happening in the world, in the mind, in the brain structures; those repeat. And they're familiar to You-the-Awareness.

And as those patterns reoccur, You experience a familiarity. But the experience, which is the memory, is freshly generated every time.

And we can talk of time here, because all of this takes place in time. You cannot talk about processes and change, and bodies and minds and universes, without that canvas of space and time.

And if you look into the content of these memories carefully, you will see that no memory is of You-the-Awareness. The memories don't contain Awareness. They appear in the Awareness. The memory is of what was perceived.

It is a familiar pattern repeated, being experienced right now. Freshly made in the Now, which is the only place that Awareness resides.

This moment where You reside is timeless. It is not transient.

Only the memories and experiences arise and subside. And there may be this experience of time, but that does not change this fact that beyond the relative nature of space and time and this world, what is truly real remains without change.

All is contained within this Aware-ness, which is non-dual. Indivisible.

Cannot be split up and apportioned to different entities. Because there's nothing here to split up in space, to distribute across time.

Awareness is ever the same.

This is the Absolute Reality beyond all that is relative and transient.