Changed concepts of “time passing”

I can think of a couple of examples of different ways of seeing time pass, as mentioned in Jack’s post. One is the way in which Australian aborigines seem to view time. They believe that the whole world was “dreamed” into life, and they have a very cyclical vision of time – night/day/night, seasons following seasons, birth from the land/life/death returning to the land. Linear time seems to hold little sway in their traditional communities – important events don’t start at a particular time but rather “when everyone who needs to be there is there”. It’s an approach to time very different from that of the white community with which these traditional societies interact.

My personal experience of a different way of “time passing” is within my own meditation practice, and those of other students that I work with. Often within meditation, a lengthy period “by the clock” is incredibly short in my experience, while at times a moment can seem to linger on extensively when I am strongly absorbed in the experience of the practice. Other students from our group report similar changed concepts of time passing. The key to this seems to be absorption in what ever you are doing, so that “clock time” loses its hold on our perception. Sometimes linear time seems to “stand still” – when a deep experience holds all consciousness, so that there is no room for “passing”, – I am too occupied “being”.

Gaynor