Michael James about Illusion of Time And Space based on teachings of Ramana Maharshi

[Guest guest]

Without first imagining the basic dimensions of time and space, we cannot

form any image or thought in our mind, and hence these dimensions are

inherent in each and every thought that we think.

 

Though time and space appear to exist outside us, we have no way of knowing

that they actually do exist outside of or independent of ourself, because

all that we know or can ever know of time and space is only the images of

them that we have formed within our own mind by our power of imagination.

Therefore, like everything that we perceive within time and space, time and

space themselves are merely mental images, conceptions or thoughts.

 

As Sri Ramana says in verse 15 of Ulladu Narpadu:

 

The past and future stand [only by] clinging to the present.While occurring,

they too are only the present. The present [is] the only one [point in time

that truly exists]. [Therefore] trying to know the past and future without

knowing the truth of the present [is like] trying to count without [knowing

the fundamental number, the unit] one [of which all other numbers are merely

multiples or fractions].

 

Thus our experience that the present moment is a point in time is an

illusion, just as our experience that the present place is a point in space

is an illusion. As we saw above, if we set aside all thoughts of any place

other than this precise present place, ‘here’, and keenly scrutinise only

this precise present place in order to discover what the truth or reality of

it is, we will discover that it is truly not a point in physical space, but

is just our own self-conscious being. Similarly, if we set aside all

thoughts of any moment other than this precise present moment, ‘now’, and

keenly scrutinise only this precise present moment in order to discover what

the truth or reality of it is,we will discover that it is truly not a point

in the passage of time, but is just our own self-conscious being. When we

thus discover that

there is no such thing as a precise present point in time, and that our

experience of the present moment in time is therefore merely an illusion, an

imaginary apparition, we will discover that the passage of time, which we

always experience only in this illusory present moment, is likewise merely

an imaginary apparition.

 

When we investigate our non-dual consciousness of our own being, which we

always experience as being ‘here’ and ‘now’, we will discover that time and

space are both unreal imaginations, and that our non-dual self-conscious

being is the only reality, the only thing that truly exists. Therefore in

verse 16 of Ulladu Narpadu Sri Ramana says:

 

When [we] investigate [that is, when we scrutinise ourself], except ‘we’

[our essential self or fundamental consciousness of being], where is time

[and] where is place? If we are [a] body, we shall be ensnared in time and

place. [but] are we [a] body? We are one [at each moment in time], now, then

and always, one [at each] place [in space], here, there and everywhere.

Therefore we, the timeless and placeless ‘we’, [alone] exist.

 

We are able to imagine ourself to be this mind, which experiences itself as

a body that exists in time and space, only because we know ourself as ‘I

am’. However, whereas our mind and the time and space known by it are

transitory appearances, we are the reality that always exists and knows its

own existence. Since our self-conscious existence or being exists

independent of time and space, it is the

absolute reality – the only reality that truly exists. Hence Sri Ramana

asks, “Except ‘we’, where is time and where is place?”, implying thereby

that we alone truly exist, and that time and space are mere appearances –

mental images that have no real existence of their own.

 

Time and space appear to exist only because we imagine ourself to be a

finite body. In truth, however, we are not any finite body,because though in

our present waking state we imagine ourself to be this body, in dream we

imagine ourself to be some other body, and in sleep we do not imagine

ourself to be any body at all. When we imagine ourself to be a particular

body, as in waking and dream, we experience both time and space, but when we

do not imagine ourself to be any body, as in sleep, we do not experience

either time or space.

 

In verse 13 of Upadesa Tanippakkal, which is the original form in which he

composed the above verse, Sri Ramana says:

 

Except ‘we’, where is time? If, having not investigated [or scrutinised]

ourself, we think that we are [a] body, time will devour us. [but] are we

[a] body? We are always one, [in] present, past and future times. Therefore

we, the ‘we’ who has devoured time, [alone] exist.

 

Source: Happiness and The Art of Being Book

which is a layman’s introduction to the philosophy and practice of the

spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana By Michael James

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram