About ten miles from our house in the Tooele Valley there is an army base which is a weapons depot. On occasion old ordinance will be disposed-of by exploding it. When this happens, we will hear the thunder and immediately look in the direction of the sound and see that the smoke from the bomb is already 100 feet in the air. At about 700 miles per hour, the sound reaches us almost a minute after the actual explosion took place; we always miss it. This delay creates the perception of time -- the waves of sound energy traveling through the medium of air have a speed limit.
Light is exactly the same, although the medium and energy are different. The energy waves we call light are disturbances in the photons that fill the Universe, or the "radiation density of space." As the waves travel through the medium of photons, there is a speed limit, they cannot go faster than "C," or 186,000 miles per second. It is "C" that gives us our perception of time in the observable Universe.
Timelessness
Eckhart Tolle, in his book The Power of Now, states that time is mental, and escaping from time requires getting outside of the mind and feelings. All that really exists is now, there is no time. There is no past, in reality, nor is there a future. All that really ever happens is now. We need to get away from our mind in order to see that we are so much more than we can perceive in time. He says that this process cannot be understood by the mind, but I'm so into my mind, I actually can explain it mentally, even though I don't understand it spiritually because I've never experienced it.
The perception of time comes from the limits of the medium to transmit the wave of energy. The time of the tsunami in Madagascar is different than the one in India because of the speed of the wave through water. Light travels much faster than sound so we could see the distant explosion in Utah almost a minute before we could hear it. Time is the speed limit, and each type of medium creates a different perception of time.
Just as the tsunami traveling through water, sound through air, and light through photons have speed limits, the physical medium of the mind gives our thoughts a speed limit. Our bodies can think only in time; it is a part of our physical existence, but it isn't the totality of what we are. Just as the plane can travel faster than the tsunami, and light travels faster than sound, there are spiritual thoughts that exist outside of the medium of the mental, and have instant travel. The water gives the tsunami limits, but there is more. There are other media which can travel faster. Outside of all of these physical media, in a spiritual dimension, there is no medium, and no limits.
Instant travel creates no perception of time because time ceases to exist. If the wave being propagated through the water had no speed limit, and traveled instantly then the tsunami in Madagascar is exactly the same as the one in India, both corresponding to the instant the earthquake happened. Space, or distance is irrelevant. If sound had instant travel we would get to see the fireworks on the other side of the valley when we heard the noise, no matter where we were. If "C" didn't exist, all our perception of both space and time would be lost.
Our Eternal Nature
Our true, or complete, existence is outside of our brain thoughts, or the mental activities that limit us. Our true self actually exists outside of the physical media of space and time. The portion of our life that is physical can easily bog-down the rest of our existence when we are so tied to the physical that we live in our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and sensations almost entirely. This causes us to lose ourselves, our true selves. Nevertheless, we feel like we want to save it, to keep our physical existence as the totality of what we are. The physical existence is easy for the brain to understand, and comfortable. In order to come to know our infinite, endless, and eternal nature, we must give up thinking our physical existence is all that exists.
Jesus explained the need to lose ourselves. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 16:25)
Once we get outside of our physical-mental existence there is no speed limit so there is no time. We are only, and always, in the present. We exist in eternity. We exist in the "NOW." We are timeless, but a part of us, our thoughts still exist in time. We are paradoxically both in time and in eternity. Time is part of us, a temporal part in which we are born, but it isn't our total existence.
The Father and the Son
We all have two "I's," the one that does stuff, and the one that wishes to be in control. When people say, "I wish I didn't do that..." they are acknowledging the two I's: the first is wishing, the other is doing, and they aren't congruent. The wishing I is the parent, and the second is the child. All of the things we need, want, do, think, or say that we wish we didn't are the physical I. The spiritual I is the one that has the executive function. But, we are so often filled with laziness that we don't take control. When we let the physical I control the actions of the body, we are letting the inmates run the asylum. We cannot abdicate our executive responsibility to maintain order in our own selves.
The Scriptures explain this need to subject the physical I to the spiritual I using the example of the Father and Son:
"And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son... And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, suffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to the temptation, but suffereth himself to be mocked, and scourged, and cast out, and disowned by his people... Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father."The "Father" represents the parent, spiritual, or executive I. This is the one in charge. The "Son" represents the child, flesh, or physical I. The only way for us to become congruent within our own selves is for the flesh to be subject to the spirit. The son must be subjected to the father. The physical must become subject to the spiritual. There is no other way.
(Mosiah 15:2-7)
Since the physical self has control of us, the spiritual self is lost, or hidden. It is always there, but the physical is a veil that clouds our ability to experience our spiritual nature. We can find our true selves by separating our two "I's," and then bringing them together.
Suffering obedience
The way Christ did it is the only way. He showed us the way. We must do as He did. Jesus Christ had to learn this through his own suffering -- hunger, thirst, fatigue, homelessness, and then pain of body and spirit. He allowed mocking, whipping, and being disowned. He even submitted to death.
"Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;" (Hebrews 5:8)It is our suffering that motivates us to take control through our executive I. The first step in subjecting the body to the spirit is to allow suffering. Our executive I can just allow us to feel all the spectrum of feelings without acting on them. We can be hungry and not eat, or not eat the things we desire that damage the body. We can feel pain and not lash-out at others, or get angry. We can allow fatigue and continue on.
The father, or executive I, lets the child, or physical I, suffer. Loneliness, heartbreak, pain, unfilled desires, and so forth can be observed, and allowed. Fasting brings hunger, thirst and fatigue. The parent smiles at the desires of the child, knowing they will eventually be filled. Postponing gratification of desires is very important. I don't think being completely Spartan is the greatest benefit, but rather just saying, "wait," and allowing desires to go without satisfaction.
By putting our selves in proper order, and letting the father be in control, and the son be subject to the father we find ourselves. We lose ourselves, the physical no longer being in charge, but we gain our whole self. Moreover, when the spiritual I is in control, we no longer suffer. There is no past, and no future so there is no guilt or anxiety. We are in the NOW; time no longer exists. We are eternal, from all eternity, to all eternity, we are part of that God who gave us life. We are timeless. This isn't some pie-in-the-sky future, it is now. It is instant. It is already there, we only need to access it.
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