Time Paradox

It has been said the time is an illusion. Well, yes and no. Time is a useful concept but impossible to define. Our measurements, days, years, hours, minutes, are constructs, a template we lay over a surface. A surface of what? Beats me. Eternity? Maybe, but again, that is a human construct.

Things do change and there does seem to be a pattern of cause and effect, but that is so comolex that we cannot possible keep track of what really causes what. Yet, we are born, grow old and die, at least the physical parts do. Still, if our essence, our soul continues past physical death, which it does in some form, what has really aged and died? An illusion? Sort of, but it is a persistent and lovely illusion.

You cannot time travel, yet, when you see the stars, they are no longer there since there light takes long light years to reach us. When you see a child, if you look the right way, you can see the adult he will be.

I guess the only thing to do is relax and don't worry about it. Observe time, just don't be trapped by it.

Time

St. Augustine said that when he did not think about time, he understood it , but, when he thought about it, he realized that he did not understand it. Einstein called time 'a stubbornly persistent illusion.' There is certainly a problem when it comes to this concept.

Many cultures view time as cyclical, to the point of almost discounting linear time.  Western Civilization reverses that, linear time becoming all important. Then, I suppose, you can turn to the Buddhists and the various esoteric/gnostic forms of Christianity which almost view time as simply unimportant.

All 3 are true and I believe that we need to develop a kind of thinking in which ideas are not conflicting, but complimentary. Modern science views space and time, not as separate, but as a unity, space-time, and it would be useful to learn to view time as cyclical, linear and not overly important, all at the same time. It would certainly stretch the mind a bit, but that is a healthy thing. Then, we need to place all of this against a backdrop of Eternity, which is outside all concepts of time.

Think a bit about that backdrop, Eternity, and you realize that words have their limit. To say 'eternal' or 'infinite' has no real meaning to the human mind, it is just a way of speaking about the unspeakable. Get used to that idea and you begin to see that any words we use to describe time are woefully inadequate. Then, it becomes easy to hold 3 different views of time in your mind at the same time without feeling conflicted.

Play with those ideas and you begin to see that words are never enough to convey the essence of anything. They are just signs pointing in certain directions. The finger pointing at the Moon is not the Moon.