The Great Illusion of Time
Time. We chase it, we lose it, we feel it slipping away. But have you ever stopped to ask what time really is? Is it real, or just an illusion we have all agreed upon? Maybe time is just a fancy trick to keep us from showing up late. Or maybe it is something far deeper, something woven into the very fabric of reality itself.
Think about the last time you were completely immersed in something. You might have watched a sunset. You could have laughed with a friend. Or perhaps you read a book that pulled you in so deeply that hours passed like minutes. Now think about a long, tedious meeting or standing in a never-ending queue at a government office. Same clock, different experience. Time bends, stretches, and warps depending on how we experience it. But why?
Bergson’s Flow vs. The Clock
Henri Bergson did not buy into the whole mechanical, clock-ticking idea. He believed time was not something rigid and measurable but something lived. Physics time is like reading about music theory. Human time is like actually getting chills when your favorite song plays. Time is not just numbers. It is the stretch of a perfect moment. It is the weight of a memory. An hour with friends feels like five minutes. In contrast, an hour waiting in line feels like a lifetime.
Bergson once said, “Time is invention or it is nothing at all.” He saw time as something we experience, not something we measure. When we try to fit time into the rigid framework of minutes and seconds, we ignore its real nature. The way it flows, expands, and contracts with our emotions and attention.
Einstein: Time is Personal
Einstein, as usual, had to flip everything upside down. His theory of relativity showed that time bends. If you lived on a spaceship moving close to the speed of light, a few years for you could pass. Meanwhile, decades could pass for someone on Earth. Time is not absolute. It moves differently for different people. If time is so flexible, then what exactly are we measuring?
Einstein himself explained it with a bit of humor. “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.” Even within our day-to-day lives, time feels subjective. Science confirms what we already know. Time does not always behave the way we expect it to.
The Mind’s Time Trick
Sadhguru would tell you that time is mostly psychological. Ever noticed how time disappears when you are deeply lost in something? Or how a single minute drags when you are stuck in a boring conversation? If time can stretch, shrink, and be totally ignored, is it even real? Or is it just a system we impose on reality to make sense of it?
For many spiritual thinkers, time is a construct of the mind. Alan Watts suggested that our obsession with time is what keeps us from truly experiencing life. He warned that constantly worrying about time, past and future, takes us away from the one moment that actually exists. Right now.
Living in the Now
Alan Watts had a unique way with his humor and wisdom. He would remind us that the past and future are just ideas. We obsess over them while ignoring the only thing that actually exists, the present. Eckhart Tolle says all suffering comes from being stuck in thoughts about the past or the future. Strip away all the illusions of time, and what is left? A single eternal moment we keep trying to measure.
Eckhart Tolle famously said, “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.” If time is something we experience, we need to focus on this. We should shift our attention to how we experience time rather than trying to control it.
The Shy Guru Perspective: Time Only Exists When Shared
At Shy Guru, we have a thought. What if time is only real when it is shared? If you experience something alone and never tell a soul, does it even exist? Maybe time is not something happening to us, but something we create together. The stories we tell, the laughter we share, the memories we carry. These are what make time real.
If time only exists through experience, then how we use it is not about counting minutes. It is about presence. It is about what we create, what we share, and what we leave behind in the memories of others. It is about shaping time, not chasing it.
So if time is not running out but unfolding through us, how will you shape it today? Take a moment to reflect. Are you truly present in the moments that matter? Are you giving time meaning by sharing it with those around you?
Here is something to think about.
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