ETERNITY IS EVER-PRESENT NOW | SPIRA

ETERNITY IS EVER-PRESENT NOW | SRI RUPERT SPIRA

|| YOUTUBE VIDEO + TRANSCRIPT ||

" 13-year-old " Alexander asks if Awareness has always existed . The presumption that time exists , inherent in the question , is then explored .

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|| TRANSCRIPTION | ETERNITY IS EVER-PRESENT NOW | SRI RUPERT SPIRA ||

A : So , I know awareness is outside of space and time , but I still cannot imagine it just always having existed , forever .

I feel like it should have been created somehow , but I do not know — was it created or has it just always been here ?

RS : When you ask the question :

" Has Awareness always been here ? "

Your question could be reformulated :

" Has Awareness always existed in time ? "

So what you are presuming is that time has always been here ; and the question is :

" Has Awareness been here all the time that time has been here ? "

( Muffled laughter )

So let us first investigate whether time has been here all the time . That will enable us to know whether awareness has been here , all the time .

So , would you agree that time consists of what we call the present , which is now , and then behind the now there is , let us call it , a vast space , which we call the past , going back indefinitely in one direction ; and then there is , in front of now , this vast space which extends indefinitely in the other direction ?

So , you know what the experience of now feels like .

A : Yeah .

RS : Because we are experiencing it now .

A : Yeah .

RS : Now , try to leave the now , and visit this place called the past .

No , sorry, let us back up .

Think of something that took place in the past , like , breakfast this morning , or anything you like .

A : OK .

RS : With that idea or that image , you have the image of an event that took place in what we call the past , but that image or thought is taking place now .

The thoughts and the image about the past is not itself in the past ; it takes place now .

Are you with me ?

A : Yeah .

RS : Forget the thought about the past or the image about the past .

We want to actually experience the past itself .

Now , just for a moment , step out of the present , and visit the past . Go there — do not just think about it or imagine it — go there .

A : I cant .

( Smiles )

RS : Can anybody here , just for a moment , step out of the present , and go into the past ?

Now , what about the future ?

Can you just , for a moment . . .

You can think about the future .

We can all think about dinner tonight , but that thought takes place now ; so the thought about the future is not the future itself .

We want to . . . go . . . we want to experience the future .

Because we are trying to experience time .

And time is a movement from the past to the future .

So we want to experience the past , and experience the future .

You have already discovered you cannot go to the past .

You have never experienced it .

In fact you cannot ever experience it .

Nobody has ever experienced the past .

What about the future ? Try to go there .

( Pause )

A : I cant really .

RS : You cant really , or you just . . . cant . . .

A : I cant at all .

RS : You cant at all . Exactly . You just cant .

( Pause )

Dont you think that if it was really there , someone would have gone there by now , just for a moment ? I mean someone .

Not just the hundred of us that it here , but one of the seven billion of us . . . or going back in time . . . I do not know how many humans have existed .

Dont you think someone , for a moment , would have actually left now , and experienced this time called the past or the future ?

Nobody has ever been there ; nobody has ever come back from the past and said : " I went there " .

Why not ? Why do you think that might be ?

A : Because the past  . . . they were there when it was the present .

RS : Because ?

A : They were there when the past was the present , but now they cant go back , because they have to stay in the present ?

RS : Well . . .

A : The past does not exist anymore ?

RS : Well , You say the past does not exist anymore ; but has the past ever existed ?

I mean in order to know that something exists , we must experience it .

A : Yeah .

RS : In order to be sure that something exists , and that we are not just imagining it . . . I mean . . .

Are you sure that fairies exist ?

A : No .

RS : No . Why not ?

A : Because . . . I have never seen one .  

RS : You have never experienced one , nor have I .

So it is safe to presume they do not exist , and until we experience one .

Now , using exactly the same criteria , given that neither you nor I , nor anyone here , nor anybody , ever , has experienced this place or this time called the past :

Why do we believe , so strongly , that it exists ?

No one has ever been there .

( Pause )

A : It is just our memory of the present .

RS : It is our memory . . . what we call memory makes us think there is something called a past , but memory takes place in the present .

The memory is an idea about the past , but when we look for the past we never find it , just like when we look for the fairy , we never find it .

( Pause )

Could it be that the past does not exist , in the way we think of it ?

A : Yes .

RS : Could it be that the future does not exist when we think of it ?

A : Yes .

RS : How many nows have there been since we have been sitting here this afternoon ?

A : Is that a trick question ?

( Laughter )

RS : Alexander , you should know me by now . All my questions are trick questions .

( Laughter )

A : One now .

RS : One now .

There has just been one now , this afternoon .

What about today ? How many nows have there been today ?

A : One now .

RS : What about in your lifetime ? How many nows have there been in your lifetime ?

A : One .

RS : Could it be that , this now , is only now there is ; and it is not going anywhere ?

Could it be that it has not come from a place called the distant past ?

Could it be that it is not slowly traveling through this medium called time ?

Could it be that it is not destined to travel forwards . . .

A : Yes .

RS : Endlessly ?

Could it be that , this now , the only now that you and I have ever experienced , is the only now there is , and it is not going anywhere ?

A : Yes .

RS : Now , go back to your question .

" Has Awareness existed forever ? "

( Pause )

A : No , Wuh . . . It exists in the now .

RS : Exactly . It is , in the now . It is present , in the now .

Awareness has not existed all the time , because there is no time for awareness to exist in .

When you fall asleep at night , you have a dream , and you dream that you have been on a three week holiday , to a Caribbean beach .

So in your dream , it is the last day of the holiday . In your dream , you look back over the past three weeks , and you can discuss with mum and dad about the things that you have been doing , the swimming , and the fishes , and the snorkeling , and the meals .

You can discuss everything that happened in the last three weeks . Yes ?

You can describe what happened this morning , and yesterday , and the day before .

And then when you

( Snap )

wake up , you look at your watch again : You fell asleep two minutes ago .

So the three weeks that you had in your dream , took place

( Snap )

in a moment in your mind in the waking state .

It did not take up any time .

The dream itself . . . in the dream , the holiday seemed to take three weeks , but in waking state time it took a moment .

Could it be , that what we are having now is a kind of waking state dream , which seems to last for 12 years , or 55 years , or 80 years , but in fact takes place in eternity ,

( Snap )

in the now ?

In this moment , which is not even a moment , because a moment is a fragment of time — but it takes place now .

Could it be that what seems to be a lifetime , from our point of view , takes place in what is called eternity , that is the eternal now — not the everlasting now , not the now that lasts forever ; there is no ever for the now to last in .

There is just this now , that is not going anywhere .

A : Yes , That , MmmYeah .

( Smile , Pause )

I see how that is possible .

( Laughter )

RS : And then , let us just go one step further .

( Pause , Water )

So we might then ask :

" Well , OK  . . .

If there is no time , then , now cannot be a moment in time , because there is no time for the now to be a moment in .

So . . .

What is this that we call now ? "

The now is . . . we all know what we mean when we say now .

Everybody knows exactly what we mean , but given that we have now discovered it is not a moment in time :

What is it ? What is now ?

( Pause )

A : Its just now . Its just like . . . Its not in time . . . but it doesnt . . . I cant give it a name , really . . .

RS : Perfect , perfect .

You cannot give it a name , but given the words we have been using this week to try to give names to our experience , which , you are quite right , cannot really be named . . . but try to , in the context of our conversations this week , try to find another name for now .

A : Knowing ?

RS : Perfect .

Knowing or Awareness . Yeah .

A : OK .

RS : Because now is , that , in which all our experience takes place .

Does not all your experience take place , in the now ?

A : Yes .

RS : That , now , is not a moment in time ; it is , pure Knowing ; it is Awareness ; it is dimensionless Awareness , or , in religious language , it is called Eternity .

Remember , Eternity does not mean everlasting in time ; it means ever-present now .

( Pause )

A : OK .