Is Time … ?

This piece is about a “thought occurrences” I have from time to time: what it is, where it comes from, the questions it raises and my thoughts about it. Thought occurrences, to me, are like “pop ups” seemingly out of thin air, or from a parallel space and “time.”

Some thoughts “happen” because of our search for answers to a question already on our minds. Then there are thoughts that simply occur to us as answers to questions not asked, a whisper from the universe into our mindful ear. In my case, the thought that occurred to me is a question I had not asked; at least not consciously. Now, here I am on the path to finding the answer. Perhaps, together we can.

When two people come together to work on an idea, three minds are present: yours, mine, and the fusion of ours. Don’t tell me we can’t get it done. Let’s do It! –William Garcia 

Questions and answers are always drifting around in the expansive ocean that is our connected and collective mind. They occur to us from this infinitely vast ocean, whether through inspiration or curiosity. Some thoughts, deserving of contemplation and examination, seep into open and inquisitive minds. The do because, when examined, they could lead to answers that may shift the psyche of the world we now live in. Such a thought occurred to me.

Having read this far tells me you have such a mind or are simply intrigued. In fact, I won’t be surprised to know you have had a similar thought-occurrence and may be on the same path as I. If you have, and are, let us travel together in search of the answer to what I believe may be one of the most consequential questions in human history. The discovery of this answer may very well awaken the collective mind altering the course of humanity. Are you ready?

Now, you do not have to be a scholar or a philosopher to engage in deep thinking, an open and inquisitive mind will do. Before I move on, please know that this writing is not intended to suggest that anyone change their beliefs. I fact, hold on to your beliefs but, at the same time, keep an open mind to the possibility that you may experience a shift. This writing is simply a search for an answer to a particular question.

 So, let’s start here: “I didn’t think of it” or “I wish I had thought about it” or “It didn’t occur to me.” I am almost sure you have spoken these words at one time or another. Obviously, I have, and it is what has set me on this path in search of an answer.

 You may know that I write about Time in my book, Now O’ Clock, Being Mindful, it Always is. In it, I treat Time as being the ultimate element; the master element if you will. It may very well be why the question occurred to me.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, you, being anywhere else in the world, may have had the same thought-occurrence. You may have pondered it for a while, only to decide there was no plausible answer to the question or could not connect with like-minded people with whom to share it. Well, here I am hoping to connect with you—to fuse our imaginations and allow curiosity to direct where we go from here.

 Curiosity is the mother of the inquisitive mind. It is what moves us to question everything – William Garcia

In the community of like-minded people, open minds are always welcomed. “Come on in! The Mind is just fine,” says the universe. Being like-minded, you may have written down your thoughts, just as I have. Sharing them, the answer may finally be found in the “third” mind. My challenge was finding you, and I hope I have, my fellow Mind-Traveler.

 I believe thought-occurrences are messages from within the realm of the silent collective mind. Some thoughts, seemingly new to us, are not new to the universe. They occur to be received through meditation, inspiration, or a subconscious thirst for knowledge. Others seem consciously unthinkable, but only until they occur to us.

So, how do I find out if you have had the same thought- occurrence I have? Well, by doing what I am doing here. This is my attempt to connect with you despite what seems to be a cosmic conspiracy to make it extremely difficult and seemingly impossible for us to have a meeting of the minds, whether in cyberspace or here in the real world. Yet, here we are, having that meeting.

This suggests to me that cosmic conspiracy isn’t to prevent us from finding the answer to the question, but to delay it. Furthermore, could it be that the universe is telling us that we are not yet ready for what could be the ultimate chaos? Could the truth significantly shift the perspective of the collective mind and alter the course of humankind? I believe it could.

The moment of my thought-occurrence was almost mind blowing to me. I had to do a kind of mindful double-take. “Did I just think of that? Is this question also an answer? In other words, is the answer, the question itself? “Moreover, did the most powerful and carefully hidden thought just occur to me? Stay with me and let’s see if we can find out.

As I mentioned before, new to me does not mean new to you or anyone else. It only means I have never heard the question asked, much less answered. Anyway, I digress. Here’s a thought; a hint of where I am going:

 Fish do not get water, and Man do not get air. Each is born in its own element. Just the same, neither Man nor Fish get Time; they’re born “in” it – William Garcia

I do not believe we, and, or nature could have existed and continue to exist without Time. I go so far as to say, that even “nothingness” cannot “be” without Time, nor without a mind to define what it “is” or “not”. Furthermore, living along as we are, I do not believe anyone knows what Time really is. At best, it is said to be some sort of element or essence.

Still, I can’t help but wonder: is it just an illusion? If it is, then what are we, having been born “in” it – an illusion within an illusion?

This raises further questions. “Is Life, and everything else for that matter, a direct consequence of Time? “Asked another way, “Did Time create us, or was Time created for the sole purpose that we may exist “in” it?”

Here the word “created” inspires still another question. “Did God create Time before creating anything or anyone? “This, to me, is like a chicken-and-egg question; which came first?

In the quote above, Of Man and Fish, my sense is that Time came first. However, these questions are still deserving of deep thinking even if the answers may yet be unknowable. How else are we going to continue to evolve?

In any case, there is still hope. Much of what we now know was at one time thought of as “unknowable”; secrets the universe kept from us and what is now common knowledge.I am sure you have heard the following: “Since the beginning of Time.”

“But when was that?”

For the sake of consistency—being born “in” Time and not knowing what it really is—we refer to it as an essence or an element. The paradox here is that Time could be whatever we want it to be, yet we cannot resist what it does. On the other hand—and this is my firm belief—we can never truly know precisely when Time began.

Regardless, prepare your mind for a shift. When I say, “ready your mind,” it is to say, “be curious and keep an open mind.” You may be the one to experience a thought-occurrence that could provide answers that, at least, get us closer to the most profound and momentous truth; the answer to the question that occurred to me:

Is Time, God?

This verse from the bible does not get me any closer to an answer: “The concept of Time was created for humanity by God in Genesis 1: 14-19.”  Instead, it raises these questions: Did God create the “concept”, or did God, being “timeless”, create Time itself; “God is timeless (John 4:24)?”  Should the word “concept” then suggest that Time is merely an illusion, or is the meaning of the words, “concept” and “timeless” here, lost in translation?

I don’t have “an” answer, and perhaps no one does. Over time, there may have been many different translations and contexts when using these words, alongside those who proclaim theirs is the right answer. Small wonder why the “truth” is so elusive. Of Time, on the other hand, human intelligence and experience inform us that it is abstract; so too, is a timeless God. Furthermore, we do not have to have faith in Time to “be” or to “do.” Neither matters to this invisible canvas.

Our behavior is reflected and, at the same time, displayed on the canvas of Time for the world to see, be terrified, or inspired – William Garcia

Setting Time aside for a few moments: “So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he, him; male and female he created them: Genisis 1:27.”The exact meaning of the phrase has been debated for millennia. Still, there is no definitive answer, and perhaps the differing translation of words and phrases may be why. Well, the debate continues to this day. It is as though the great scholars and philosophers can’t come to terms with the meaning of the word “image” as contextualized in Genisis 1:27.

Here on the human side of things, the prevailing meaning of the word is that it is an external form of someone or something—something affectively sensory. Moreover, there seem to be no consensus with respect to which is true: that God, being timeless, created the concept of Time, or Time itself. Now, why would God create an intelligent being and endow it with sensory abilities, when only through faith can we have a relationship with him, her, or it: Nature?

Furthermore, being intelligent as we were all “designed” to be, I do not believe there are questions that God has forbidden us from asking. It should not matter if they are of centuries-old beliefs, or even of God’s own nature and form.

On the other hand, as I mentioned before, we need not have faith in Time so that we may live; we simply exist “in” it until we run out of Life. Yes:

We do not run out of Time. We simply run out of Life – William Garcia

Getting back to the word “image.” Obviously, we see each other as having many different physical attributes in terms of there being several “races” within one human race. However, inasmuch as we are one race, are we all images of one God, or of many? Moreover, is the word “image” in the verse, also lost in translation? I sense it is, unless there is a definitive answer to the question: Exactly, what is the image of the one God—the image we are to recognize as God? What are the images of the other Gods? Should I know and recognize them all, or only mine?

Absent the human sensory ability to see what is invisible, it seems to me that the word, “imitate” rather than the word “image,” is necessarily applicable here. It gives form and expression to how we behave toward each other. I believe God created us, not in “His” image, but instead to imitate what “He” wants us to “be” like in terms of human relations and the emotional “Self.” We are taught to behave with Compassion, Empathy, Care and Kindness and that we should love (used as a verb) each other and share in the happiness it brings. We are also encouraged to comfort each other in times of suffering and sadness and to rest assured that Love always extinguishes the flame of hate whenever it arises. This is the language of the human soul, without regard to race or creed.

These are as abstract as Time, God, and more so, Timelessness.

Missed moments are lost forever, and this loss is a very high price to pay for living past each other without loving and caring or just being human for goodness’s sake – William Garcia

Furthermore, we are taught to have faith in an invisible God; God being referred to as, He, not as She, while to others, as It (Nature).I digress.

Time needs no definition, except to say that it just is.  However, for the purpose of this writing, and in religious terms, I say Time is agnostic. It affects us all in the same way irrespective of who, how many, what our God is, or what our beliefs may be. I believe we exist first, because of Time—the perfect element, an invisible cradle for the existence of matter and breath. Sometime after, we learn about the Self, God, and the story of creation; a story that continues to be written as time elapses and as our thoughts, beliefs and faith evolve, and as the unknowable becomes known.

But here I am, in search for the answer to the question of what seems paradoxical to me: that we could not exist without Time and could live out our lives without believing and having faith in any God. We need only follow three simple rules. I list them in the piece I wrote titled, Sentenced. As it is, Time is ever present on our minds, more so than our minds on God. It is mostly in times of need or despair that we usually call upon The Almighty. Otherwise, we simply live along and get along. Inasmuch as there are references to many different gods, there is only one Time.

 In contemplation, I try to wrap my mind around what may be, the creation of Time by all Gods or to a timeless God to whom it is attributed. In the continuum, could it be that God and Time, are one and the same? What do you think? Is it the great mystery of life, that there may be an unknowable link between Time and God? Is it also that a sole and definitive answer to the question is unknowable?

What now?  I am not there yet. With only the life that is left of me, will I pass on the baton of knowledge or the question we are trying to answer—the answer that awaits in the realm of our universal consciousness, herein to be realized, or to occur to us when the time is right, when the world is ready to make sense of it. For now, we hold on to what we believe and to the faith we have in what we do.  Still, we should continue to be curious and open-minded even to the possibility that we may not be ready for the truth or ready to recognize, accept, and appreciate it for what it may be.

Again, as with everything in life, what was once thought of as unknowable, much less inconceivable, is now common knowledge. Furthermore, think about this for a second: The amassed body of all knowledge to date—with respect to everything about life and living—could fit in a thimble. It suggests there is good reason to continue the search for knowledge about what is unknown or possibly unknowable.

Are we there yet? No. But we’re on our way now, with open and inquisitive minds on the path in search of answers to questions asked or not. It is what we must do if we are to continue to evolve.

Is Time, God, or is God timeless? If God is timeless, where did the fullness of Time come from? What about, now? Is Now Timeless?

I found three relevant views:

Timelessness: major thinkers from St. Augustine to Thomas Aquinas, argue that God is atemporal (outside of time). In this view, God sees all history-past, present and future as one “timeless now.”

The Everlasting View: Some modern philosophers suggest God is atemporal but everlasting; meaning He exist at every moment of time but has no beginning or end.

The Pantheistic View: Others, like modern spiritual author Neale Donald Walsch, suggest we are “the stuff that God is” implying that time and our evolution are how the divine experiences itself.

I take offense to the use of the word “stuff” in defining such a sophisticated and consequential view. Even if unintended, it is condescending in tone to a profound concept. I prefer to use the word “essence” instead. Here is how Baruch Spinoza, the 17^th-century philosopher who is widely credited with introducing pantheistic ideas to Western philosophy worded the idea: There is only one, infinite, self-caused substance in the entire universe, and he called it God or Nature.  I digress.

 The questions I raised emerged through inspiration—or what I was told I was doing, “channeling,”—before I did any research. However, these questions had already been raised by the most astute and learned theologians and philosophers over millennia. Until now, I considered my Self to be an agnostic theist: someone who believes in a god but acknowledges their existence is unknowable. But after considering the different views I mentioned, the one “I” am most aligned with is Pantheism. Yes. “I” am a pantheist who also believe in the everlasting.

Nevertheless, two questions remain: when and what. When did Time begin? What is the “image of God?” These questions persist simply because the answers have yet to be stated with absolute certainty. I suggest that because Time is the “essence” in which life was originally conceived, its exact beginning is inherently unknowable. God, on the other hand—being invisible with respect to form and nature—can be described as anything anyone wants or imagines him, her, or it to be.

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” – Buddha