The Spiritual Chicks: If time is an illusion why is my past still pissing me off

Link: The Spiritual Chicks: Kick-Ass Content.

While browsing on this fine sunday morning i found myself at this site. I am logging it because of the reference to time being an illusion, (my feelings too).

Check it:

"It’s not a philosophical statement to say that everything happens in the present---it’s the truth.  Think about it.  We remember the past and make predictions for the future all in the present moment.  We experience reality only in the now.  For millennia, mystics (and more recently, scientists) have informed humankind that time is an illusion.  But we’re so tied to our stories about the past (you know, how badly we were treated as children, teenagers, etc.) and our desires for the future (yes, all those worthwhile goals such as financial abundance, powerful positions, etc.) that we can’t see that what we focus our attention on in the moment is our reality.  Every time we review painful memories from childhood, we give them life and confirm our sense of powerlessness.  While we pray for more money in the future, we do nothing more than affirm our feelings of lack.  So, what’s the answer?  Stop dreaming, stop thinking, stop remembering?  Well, yes, as a matter of fact.  If time is merely a construct, we can choose to deconstruct it.  Without time, there is no death and we are free to simply be. The function of time is to get us to realize that it doesn’t exist.  That just might be the key to enlightenment".

One of the points i would like to make is; how is time defined? or even, for who is time defined...of course the answer must be humanity.

Could it be argued that time, (in its popular meaning), is in fact a mechanism for control. After all what does 9-5 or "you're late" mean to anyone or thing other than the wage slave?.........

All life is cyclical while time as we know it is linear and therefore unnatural.
This is one of those subjects that i have a genuine interest in as in my humble opinion it's not the only illusion played on the unsuspecting, wealth also springs to mind.

As for 'enlightenment' i'm not sure whether understanding time is the key to it.
Personally i don't subscribe to the idea of understanding anything because if living is in the moment surely there is no need to waste time analyzing it.

I would love to hear some thoughts on this so how about a little communication...it's a two way street you know !!

 

Comments

[dangerous don smoke, (dub selector, soundclash warrior)]

now thats the type of 2 way street that i like to set my feet on. i certainly will check brother Bergson and i very much appreciate the Bergson definition of Time as duration or measurement thereof.

Alan Watts may conclude that part of the confusion lies in the English language and its limits, as it allows interpretation beyond its scope.

from now on i will make it clear when discussing Time that it is the duration/measurement of which i speak as Space is a completely different subject.

thank you

[johnny]

If time is, as you say, an illusion, then how can you waste it?

There has been many interesting things written on time, but were you to be interested in 'wasting some time' exploring them I would suggest Henri Bergson, in particular his writings on - Duration.
He would insist that firstly one must conceive of time in terms of duration and to insist that time not be confused with space.