The Nature of Time and Consciousness During Sleep

Consciousness reveals that time ceases to exist in sleep, as the mind, which creates time, is absent.

### The Nature of Time and Consciousness: Understanding Sleep and Perception
* 🕰 When we sleep, we lose our sense of time because the mind, which **creates the perception of time**, is **not active** during this state.
* 🌌 The past and future can be imagined as vast spaces extending endlessly, but we cannot truly step into them; our experience is confined to the **present moment**, or "**now**."
* 💭 Reflecting on the past or future happens in the present, indicating that these concepts may not exist **independently of our perception**.
* ⏳ "If nobody has ever been there, how do we know that this place called the **past really exists**?" This question challenges our understanding of time, suggesting it may be an **illusion created by the mind**.
* 🔍 The experience of time is filtered through our minds, and when the mind is absent during sleep, the **sense of time also disappears**, making it feel like we **wake up instantly**.
* 🧠 Our minds impose limitations on reality, much like **orange sunglasses distort our perception of snow**; thus, **time and space are constructs of our consciousness**.
* ✨ When we cleanse our perception of these limitations, we can experience the **infinite nature of reality** and the **beauty that comes from it**, which reflects our **connection to existence**.
* ❤ Ultimately, the way we experience the world does not change, but our **perception of that experience transforms**, allowing us to see **beauty and love** in everything around us.

why do we lose sense of time when we're sleeping? Why do we lose sense of time when we're sleeping? Why do we lose sense of time when we're sleeping? Try now you understand what I mean by now, yeah? And if we represent the past, we could imagine that the past is like a vast space that extends endlessly behind the now, and that the future is a vast space that extends indefinitely in front of the now, yes? And the distance between the past and the future is what we call time, yes? Or the distance between two events in the past or the future. So, so now let's explore time, the past, and the future. So now, just for a few moments, leave the now and visit this place that you call the past. I, when I say visit it, I don't mean just think about it or imagine it, because if you think about it, let's take, say, you take the image of breakfast this morning. That image, image doesn't take place in the past. That image takes place now. So I don't

mean just think about the past or imagine the past. I mean, go there, leave the now, just step out of the now and go into the past. That's not possible, okay? Because if I try to step into the past, that effort is happening now. Exactly. So, can anyone here, just while we're discussing, can anyone here step out of the past and just step out of the now and visit the past, just for a few moments? No. Can you imagine, Alexander, that anybody that has ever lived, not just us kind of weirdos that are interested in nonduality, but regular people, that could you imagine that any of them could just for a few moments step out of the now and actually go to the place that we call the past? No. Okay, so if nobody's ever been there, and presumably the same applies for the future, yeah. So, if nobody, nobody has ever been there, how do we know that this place called the past really exists? Surely experience must be the test of the existence of something. So, if nobody's ever been there, nobody's

ever got a glimpse of it. How do we know it's there? We don't really. We don't. No, we don't know it's there. We imagine it's there, but we don't know it's there. We have no knowledge of it at all. Could it be that it's not there? Yes. And wouldn't that be in line with our experience? In other words, could it be that the past and the future don't exist in the way that our minds imagine them? Yes. After all, have you ever experienced anything apart from now? No. And how many Nows have you experienced in your life? Or let's just take today. How many Nows have you experienced today? That's a trick question. One. One. One. Yeah. So, so all your life, you're only going to experience one now? Yes. Yes. And that, that now. We've already discovered that, contrary to popular belief, the now is not this fraction of a moment sandwiched between these two vast spaces of the past and future. That the vast spaces of the past and future aren't

there so now is not a moment in time. We normally think that the now is moving slowly through time. Yeah, H. How fast is the now moving through time in your experience? It's another trick question. It's not moving. It's not moving. It's not going anywhere. It hasn't come from anywhere, and it's not going anywhere. So this now is the only now there is, and this now is not a moment in time. How long does this now last? It's Eternal. It's Eternal, and you understand that by Eternal. Eternal doesn't mean Everlasting in time. It means ever-present now. So if we're just simple and we just stay with the facts of our experience, time is never experienced. Time is what the now looks like when it is filtered through our mind. In other words, time, it doesn't exist in our mind. It seems to exist in our mind, and therefore, if that's the case, wouldn't it make sense that when our mind disappears in sleep, the seeming existence of time disappears with it? Yes, that's why we don't experience

time when we're asleep. Actually, we don't experience time when we're awake, but we seem to. But when we're asleep, we don't even seem to experience time because no mind is present in sleep. So, that's why you seem to wake up in the same moment that you fall asleep, because there is no time in between two waking states or two dream states. Okay, that's confusing, but it makes sense. Um, it's confusing that it makes sense. No, no, it's confusing, but it makes sense. It's confusing, but it makes sense. Yes, yes, it's exactly [Laughter]. It's confusing because we compare, because everything that I've said you've understood in your own experience and you've agreed with, and it's very simple what I've said if you just stick with your experience. But when we compare that with the way reality seems from the point of view of the mind, it conflicts with the mind's view of reality. So, it is the mind that superimposes its own limitations on reality and makes reality appear in a

way that is consistent with those limitations. Just as I said this morning, if you put on a pair of orange sunglasses when you're skiing, you very quickly forget that you've put the glasses on, and the snow appears to be orange. You think the snow is orange. The snow is appearing in accordance with the limitations or the coloring of your glasses, but because you have forgot that you are looking through this limited medium, you think that the orange color belongs to the snow. Now, each of our minds is a limited medium. Our minds are the orange glasses, but the orange color is time and space. That's the tint of our minds, time and space. So, when Consciousness looks through the time and space glasses of our mind, it sees a three-dimensional, a four-dimensional world—three dimensions of time and one dimension of space—and we think time and space belongs to the world. No, it doesn't. Time and space are the orange glasses through which Consciousness is looking at eternity. That's what I meant when I

said sometime today or yesterday that the world as we normally see it is a reification or an objectification of the limitations of our mind. The limits that we seem to see in the world belong to the glasses of the Mind through which we perceive. If you take away the limitations of the Mind through which we perceive, what is out there is eternal, infinite awareness, or God's INF being. And that's what the sufis mean when they say everything is the face of God. It's what William Blake meant when he said when the doors of perception are cleansed, everything will be seen as it really is, infinite. The doors of perception, that's the glasses of time and space through which that's the doors of perception. When the doors of perception are cleansed, when the mind is cleansed of time and space, what seem to be finite will be seen as infinite in religious terms as God's face. And what does that look like? I know you can't really, you can't see it technically. No, you can't see it.

you know it through the experience of beauty. That's what the experience of beauty is. That's how you experience it. And in exactly the same way that when your relationship with other people and animals are cleansed from the limitations of the mind, what seems to be a relationship with another is felt as love, closeness, friendship. Okay, so you mean it's the same beauty as like looking at the window and admiring the mountains. It's the same when you experience beauty in any form. That is reality, eternal, infinite consciousness filtering into your finite mind. Beauty is the experience of the collapse of the distinction between consciousness and existence or between self and other. I'm giving you a rational explanation of it, but the actual experience of it is the experience of beauty or love. So, the way the world appears doesn't change, but the way you experience that appearance does change. So, don't expect suddenly the world to be transformed into some magical appearance. It's not the

appearance that changes. It's your experience of the appearance that changes. Okay.

Time Is Never Actually Experienced

Rupert Spira

The Nature of Time and Our Perception of It

We lose our sense of time while sleeping because we cannot physically step out of the present moment.

The past and future are conceptual spaces that extend from the now, and the distance between them is what we perceive as time.

Since no one can actually visit the past or future, their existence remains uncertain.

The existence of the past and future is uncertain, as we only experience the present moment, or "now.

" The concept of "now" is not a moment in time, but rather eternal and ever-present.

Time seems to exist in our mind, but when the mind disappears in sleep, the perception of time also disappears.

Time is not experienced in sleep, leading to the sensation of waking up instantly.

The mind superimposes its limitations on reality, creating a distorted perception of time and space.

Our minds act as a limited medium, similar to orange sunglasses, causing us to misinterpret the true nature of reality and believe that time and space are inherent to the world.

The Illusion of Limitations in Perception

Our perception of the world is shaped by the limitations of our mind.

Cleansing these limitations reveals eternal, infinite awareness, which is seen as God's presence.

The experience of beauty and love arises from this shift in perception, collapsing the distinction between consciousness and existence.

The experience of appearance is subjective and can change over time.

It's not the appearance itself that alters, but rather our perception and experience of it.

This shifting perspective can lead to a deeper understanding of beauty and identity.