Realities of Time, an Illusion or Not?

Written by Mathew Naismith

I didn’t really want to touch on this subject again however, recent discussions with others on this subject has impelled me to write about this subject once again. First of all it matters not to me if it’s real or not, all I am doing is living in the present moment, if at times this reality feels real so be it and if not so be it.  

If we just consider the present moment, this reality has to be an illusion because there is only the present moment; there is no time in the present moment because it’s only about the present with no past or future.   The other thing to consider however  is, no matter what we are experiencing or expressing it’s still of this timeless consciousness, it might be only parts of this consciousness that we are expressing at any moment in time but it’s still a part of this consciousness, this means this reality can’t be a true illusion. To be a true illusion this illusion would have to be no part of us, it would have to be something we have no connectedness too, this is not the case within time because everything of time is a part of us because it’s still a part of this timeless consciousness.

This timeless consciousness represents a whole consciousness, it is not fragmented or separated in any way to itself, it’s whole. Time on the other hand, our present reality, is of a fragmented consciousness, it’s certainly not whole, this means we cannot express consciousness in a whole way, we can only express this timeless whole consciousness in parts within time. The question is, does this make this reality or any reality of time an illusion?  It certainly does to a certain extent, it is never who we are as a whole, a whole consciousness however it’s still in parts of this timeless whole consciousness therefore realties of time can never be a true illusion. If I cut off my hand from my whole self is that hand no longer my hand, it’s an illusion because it’s no longer a part of me. If I reconnected the hand to my arm again, does this make the hand no longer an illusion because it’s again a physical part of me? The point is the hand is always a part of you; it’s never not a part of you so it can never be an illusion even after once severed from your whole body!!  

So when you separate one part of a whole consciousness, does this make this part of a whole consciousness an illusion? Not to the whole conscious self like the hand to the whole human physical self isn’t an illusion once severed however, if the severed hand thought this is all I am that would be an illusion.  

So what are we doing when we judged realities of time an illusion, are we judging as the hand or are we judging as the whole self, the whole conscious self? We are of course only judging as the severed hand and not the whole self, this is where I think we are misperceiving when we judged time is just an illusion, we are judging from the severed hand point of view not from the whole self.   

If the hand is no longer aware of it’s whole self, it will think this is all I am when it’s not, this is the illusion. We are actually no different to the severed hand because of our disconnectedness to the whole consciousness of timelessness.  The illusion again is thinking this is all I am. Now let’s look at this through the eyes of the whole self, just because parts of my whole self is being expressed in time this doesn’t mean it’s no longer a part of me therefore an illusion.  

We are obviously still looking at our whole self through the eyes of the severed hand otherwise we wouldn’t and couldn’t judge time as being just an illusion.

I had a recent vision of my whole conscious self within timelessness looking through a window observing my fragmented self in time, there is nothing unusual about this however, my fragmented conscious self within time was also observing my whole self within it’s timeless conscious state. For me this was an unusual vision.

Even though I was being the observer from both time and timeless states of consciousness, there was no separation except for the glass window. The glass window represented the separation of consciousness’s of time and timelessness that was all; they were still connected especially through the observation of each other.  Neither one nor the other seemed like an illusion to me.

We are trying to look through the window through this fragmented consciousness of time and observing our whole self thus judged time as being just of an illusion like the severed hand. What we haven’t learnt to do yet , at the same present moment, is observe ourselves from this non-fragmented consciousness of timelessness, in other words we are only looking at ourselves through one side of the window when there are two sides of the window to look and observe ourselves through. If this whole consciousness only existed within timelessness, we wouldn’t have a window but to me this window obviously does exist between this timeless state of consciousness and this consciousness of time.  The window doesn’t stop us from connecting or observing because through observing we connect.  We were never really disconnected but only through our non-observation of consciousness within time and timelessness because no matter what consciousness becomes it’s still consciousness. 

Appendage: It would seem I need to express this differently, I will use the expression higher and lower self instead of consciousness of timelessness and time. The higher self is represented by the whole body and the lower self is represented by the severed hand, the severed hand being of ignorance to it’s higher self until it becomes aware of the higher self.   

Higher self = the whole body + awareness + timeless consciousness

Lower self = the severed hand + ignorance + consciousness of time

The lower self is the hand which has been severed from the main whole body, this is represented by the human species consciousness which is usually ignorant to it’s higher self. When we only perceive through the hand, the lower self, the lower self thinks this is all I am, this is my whole self  until it becomes aware of it’s higher self, this is where the perception of the illusion comes into it. At this stage we are only looking at the higher self through the lower self’s awareness, the severed hand.  

Now let’s look at this through the perspective of the higher self. The higher self is aware of our lower consciousness self which is represented by the severed hand, is this lower consciousness, like the severed hand, no longer a part of this whole consciousness because it’s fragmented or separated from the higher conscious self?  As the severed hand is to us, the lower consciousness is still a part of this higher consciousness, at the higher consciousness level the higher consciousness doesn’t perceive the lower consciousness as being an illusion but the lower consciousness does once it becomes aware of it’s higher self.  In my mind we really should be aware of this.

The present moment is in relation to timelessness, a consciousness of timelessness, how do we relate the present moment in a consciousness of time?  The concept of the present moment doesn’t work in time because time is about a past and future and not just about the present moment.  All of a sudden we have become aware of our higher self and realised that there is indeed a consciousness of just the present moment without a past or future, this is the consciousness of timelessness, our higher selves.  At this stage we are still just perceiving through our lower consciousness thus we have perceived that this higher self is our true selves which brings us to the conclusion that the lower self must be just an illusion. 

Now the concept of the present moment doesn’t work in time so what we have done is judge that time must be an illusion for it to work, this concept is totally disregarding that all consciousness is connected and is one of the same no matter how fragmented the consciousness is especially in time, it’s still consciousness no matter how fragmented it becomes.  Now the higher self knows that the present moment only works in a consciousness of timelessness, our higher state of consciousness, it doesn’t judged one part of consciousness as being an illusion because it’s fragmented through time.  The lower also self needs to believe it’s an illusion because it’s of this higher self, this to me sounds slightly ego controlled.  The higher self on the other hand accepts it too is of a lower consciousness; it doesn’t have to egoistically believe that a more ignorant consciousness is an illusion. 

We have now become aware of our higher selves, what I believe we need to do now is perceive through this higher self as well as the lower conscious self without judging the lower or higher self as being of a lesser value than the other, the higher self doesn’t judge this way at all, this is why I don’t like explaining myself by using higher and lower explanations.  There is no true higher or lower consciousness; one consciousness is just of time and the other of timelessness.