Time: Past, Present and Future Enfolded in One

The Phenomenon of Time/Timeless Resonance

The experience of inner depth and pure essence wherein the ego no longer exists is a state or station of consciousness that guides the human being to conscious self awareness and reflection. This is the process of transformation of

human consciousness. The human being has the capacity to connect and move to higher levels of consciousness through intensification, concentration and expansion that creates an ontological shift in dimesnions; each magnifies the other. The experience in spiritual practice is a dissolution of the structures of personality by understanding through the simultaneous realization in body, mind and spirit that ther is an absolute and ultimate connection between the heart of the human being and the eternal universe. This is inter-subjectively verifiable. At this moment or in this breath, time stands still, space is a void and all that exists is in the presence of oneness within light. this is the point of consciousness that exists beyond time and is deeply united with the divine.

Time is a deeply creative transformative process that reveals to the human being her/his integral and intricate connection to the universe. It can arise in subtle or profound experiences through suffering and ecstatic bliss. It is the unfolding of the essence of all creation. The creative is generally considered to be the realm of reality understood with the mind through imagination. Imagination necessarily requires mental images that may not actually be present to the senses, such as, an inner perception of light. Imagination can also be understood to mean a source of energy through the development of the capacity to obtain new forms of previously confined energy. By imagining a new way of knowing and understanding we can experience a new energy source that lies deeply within each of us. The experience of resonance is a field of energy that vibrates within the magnetism of the universal chain of being. This opens the human bieng to experience consciousness. The creative process guides the human being to grasp the powers of the universe. We become stimulated by life and consciously enter a process of co-creativity. the human being realizes that Self is embedded in a cosmology of awareness which is united with the reality of the existence. The energy field around and within the individual cultivates an inner awareness of the source of creation.

St Augustine's story of the resonance of time is quite profound because it is the story of the divine universe embedded within the human being. The human being is part of the whole creation; just as the particle is united with the whole, the finite with the infinite. The power of time as resonance is eloquently described in the following passage:

When a group of people get together and form a circle of a united intention, their hearts connect and in this unified connection they begin to create an extremely powerful energy and electromagnetic system. In the union of energies, energies do not add, they multiply. And if there are extremely powerful people, with powerful concentration ability among this group, the multiplication of energy will increase even more. It can create and it can direct to a favorable destination. It actually effects the course of energy-waves (Nahid Angha, 1993, p. 10-11)

The entire system is beyond the past, present and future. Creativity is the real imaginative quest of a human being seeking self knowledge. St. Augustine is a good example of this principle. This is applicable to any area of focus with passion to effect systemic change, whether it is the work of scientists, political activits, teachers or spiritual quests for knowledge as a scientist in his or her own inner laboratory (Conversations with Shah Nazar Dr. Seyed Ali Kianfar, 1998). The twentieth century human being has become alienated from the universe through technological advancement and materialism. St. Augustine devoted his life to understanding the biblical meaning of time arising from the story of the divine. The rational body "is formed by the imaginations, thought and wishes of the rational soul and its brightness and gentleness depends on the purified heartly intentions, ideas and ethical virtues" (Nahid Angha, 1993, p. 118). His intention through devotion seemed to magnify his search for knowledge as depicted through his tenacious quest to understand time.

Science: Time

Let us examine briefly the power of time because it is a scientific dimension of consciousness that is part of the essential unfolding of the human being. Science is in accord with St. Augustine's view of time as evidenced by the following twentieth century cosmological understanding of time.

The realm of power that brings forth the universe is not itself an event in time, nor a position in space, but is rather the very matrix out of which the conditions arise that enable temporal events to occur in space. Though the originating power gave birth to the universe fifteen billion years ago, this realm of power is not simply located there at that point of time, but is rathre a condition of every moment of the universe, past, present and future (Swimme, 1992, p. 17).

There is only one constant time that encompasses past, present and future simultaneously. Science indicates that the universe is comprised of systems of waves, atoms, electrons, protons, etc. Waves which are free are light. Waves that are confined are matter. Therefore, light waves can travel freely through time and space, without the limitation of matter. The universal laws are constant and harmonious. "The Sun, each second, transforms four million tons of itself into light. Each second a huge chunk of the Sun vanishes into radiant energy that soars away in all directions" (Swimme, 1996, p. 39). At the heart of the cosmos is the timeless union of the human being with the divine.

Human beings can connect to this source if we try to see beyond the limitations of our eyes. Actions and reactions, the hidden and the apparent are engraved in the universes story so that . . .

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References
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Article: Ghotbeddin, Hazrat Mir. Harmony and Understanding. Sufism Journal, Vol. VII, No. 4, 10-11.