Let's do a self-exploration meditation on Nisargadatta Maharaj's book,
I Am That,
Chapter number 3,
Living the Present Reality.
We will explore how time is a mental construct and does not really exist.
Let's sit comfortably,
Let's close our eyes.
Observe that in this present moment,
There are thoughts arising and falling,
There are feelings arising and falling,
There are physical sensations arising and falling,
There are perceptions arising and falling,
These arisings appear and disappear.
Notice the perception of sound of these words appearing and disappearing.
Notice the perception of touch of the body on the chair,
Appearing and disappearing.
Notice thoughts appearing and disappearing.
Notice feelings appearing and disappearing.
Notice any physical sensations appearing and disappearing.
Where are they appearing and disappearing?
Don't they appear and disappear in the present moment?
Can you ever know anything other than what is in the present moment?
Can you ever step out of the present into the past?
Can you ever step out of the present into the future?
In your own direct experience,
Can you ever prove the existence of the past or the future by going there?
Where does the memory of the past appear and disappear?
Where does the imagination of the future appear and disappear?
Do the past and the future really exist in your own direct experience or are they simply a mental assumption?
Is time simply a mental construct?
Let's explore our direct experience.
Where is my direct experience always happening?
Experience always happens in the present moment.
What makes the present moment so special?
Isn't it the existence of the sense of I am?
I am in the present moment.
That is how the present gets its stamp of reality.
That is how the present gets its livingness.
That is how the present gets its actuality.
I am in the now.
That is what makes the present moment real.
The sense of being is always in the now.
Everything always happens in the now.
And everything that happens is known by the sense of being.
In fact,
The meaning of the present moment is the sense of being.
The sense of being is so close to us that most of us miss it.
We miss recognizing the permanence of the sense of being.
We miss recognizing the continuity of the sense of being.
The continuity of the sense of being is the truth.
Hone ka ahsaas,
The sense of being,
Has always been and will always remain.
That is eternal.
The mind misses this truth.
The mind feels the need to now establish a continuity.
Because it misses the truth,
It finds gaps in its understanding.
It cannot find a continuity.
It fills up the gaps with an assumption called time.
The mind says that the distance between two events is time.
It labels the first event as past and the second event as present and the third event as the future.
But the truth is that in our own direct experience,
All three events are experienced only in the now.
There is no real past or future event.
There is simply the now.
And the now is special because of the sense of being,
The sense of I am.
I am is equal to the now.
There is only the now.
There is only I am.
There is only the sense of being.
Time is simply a mental construct.
Everything changes.
The body changes.
The mind changes.
Thoughts change.
Feelings change.
But that which is now has always been real.
And the now has never changed.
The reality of the now-ness has never changed,
Not even in dream.
What is now is real.
Examine,
Since you were born,
Has this sense of now being real ever changed?
It has always been the same now.
It is the same now.
It will always remain the same now.
It is an eternal now.
What is it that makes the now eternal?
Everything changes.
But the sense of I am is continuous.
This continuity of I am-ness imparts reality to the now and makes the now eternal.
I impart reality to the now.
The sense of I am,
The sense of being,
Is continuous.
The sense of I am is equal to now.
Now is equal to the sense of being.
Time is simply a mental construct.
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