Ambivalent View on Time Continuam

Clock-time Constraints Could Be A Hindrance
Lata Mani

So completely normative is the notion of clock-time that our sleeping, waking and working schedules are dictated entirely by the clock. Time becomes measurable, finite; but time cannot be extended. Two hours remains two hours in clock-time. If we need more time, we need to extend the deadline to complete our task. Deadlines may be stretched, but not time...
There are oppressive aspects of space-time compression. But other kinds of time coexist with clock-time. Some examples are the notions of Indian standard time, rural time and the ritual calendar that is related to the cycles of the moon, not the sun. All three are a counterpoint to clock-time and its double, the Gregorian calendar.
We can consciously cultivate practices that bring us in touch with other kinds of temporality. Why is it that we find sitting in a garden or at the seashore so inherently relaxing? Why does our sense of urgency soften and gradually diminish without much effort on our part? Nature is always only in the present moment. It exists so completely in, as, and for itself that it naturally exists beyond clock-time. Observe a tree develop from sapling to full girth. Although the clock and the calendar can be utilised to keep a record of the tree’s growth, they are inadequate for a proper appreciation of its journey. Indeed, it could be argued that one reason why clock-time appears to cease, or at least lose its grip on our consciousness when we are out in nature, is that it is simply insufficient to measure the rhythms of nature.
The present moment is one that is experienced without regard to either past or future, that is to say, a moment experienced in its fullness. Most often, we thread each moment into a chain of moments, those that precede it and those that follow it. Each moment takes shape and meaning relative to all that has gone before it and all that we predict or hope will follow. The present moment is merely a name for a moment so consciously experienced that both past and future dissolve into what is often called the Now. When we are in the Now, time completely collapses.
One of the purposes of meditation is precisely to cultivate one’s ability to consciously be in the present moment, without taking flight into the future or seeking shelter in the past.
As the reference to meditation indicates, it is not only outside of ourselves that we experience a temporality that disrupts the normative status of clocktime. Our own bodies, if we were to attend to them properly, can also serve to illustrate this. We will notice the small and not-so-small punishments that we mete out to our bodies in order to be disciplined by time: our forsaking sleep and nutrition, our becoming storehouses of stress, our pushing bodily limits by means of coffee, cigarettes and other stimulants.
If, however, we refuse these mechanisms of submission to clock-time and insist that the workday be organised according to the rhythms of the body, the hours we work and the conditions in which we work will be radically different. For then, the natural ebb and flow of energy will be integral to the social organisation of work and life. Work, indeed life activity more generally, will appropriately honour three qualities; activity (rajas), inertia (tamas) and dynamic stillness (sattva). The pace and texture of life will no longer be determined by mechanistic time.


Change Is Constant, Go With The Flow
Bal Krishna Mishra

Change is what forms the basis for time. Clock time is nothing but an imaginary concept to relate to and comprehend the process of change that is real. We hardly ever perceive the flow of time. However, we regularly observe the sun rising and setting, the moon traversing the sky through the night, old age following youth, autumn following winter, a seed becoming a sapling and then a tree, a river flowing and changing its course constantly, and the hands of the clock changing positions. The story of change goes on endlessly. Time has its existence only in the present moment. It’s the change that flows and time is always static in the form of the present moment witnessing the change.
Let us examine a few contemporary methods of determining various time periods. The age of a tree is determined by counting the annual rings on it that shows the change that any given tree underwent during a particular period. One ring usually marks the passage of one year in the life of the tree.
In the case of dating a fossil we compare the change in decaying C-14 atoms vis-a-vis those living in the present. The radioactive C-14 atom decays to one-half in about 5,700 years. This is known as the half-life-period. By looking at the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 in the sample and comparing it to the ratio in a living organism, it is possible to determine the age of a formerly living thing fairly precisely. C-14 dating also captures the story of change that has happened to the sample.
The Sun Dial was a popular instrument to track the time in ancient times where a gnomon was used to cast the shadow of the changing sun on a circular stone slab. This changing and moving shadow served as a clock.
Today’s accepted scientific definition of time also captures only the phenomenon of change. The International System of Units has defined one second as the duration of 9,192,631,770 cycles of radiation corresponding to the transition between two energy levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom. This definition only reveals that a second is an imaginary packet which bundles a real change of 9,192,631,770 cycles in the energy level of the caesium oscillator often called an atomic clock.
In philosophy too, time is upheld as being unreal by thinkers like Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer and notably John Mc Taggart in his idea, The Unreality of Time.
Greek philosopher Heraclitus has said that you cannot get into the same river twice. A contemplative mind may even ask whether one can even enter the same river once. A profound Latin proverb proclaims: "vita est in motu" which means "change is the very essence of life". As Shunryu Suzuki puts it, "Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. Unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer. "
Ever since our birth, our bodies are subjected to involuntary, irresistible and irreversible changes until we die. If change is the only constant and reality then the very effort to resist change is like trying to stop a gushing river. It’s futile trying to stop a river but it is fun to go with the flow, surrender and swim with it riding on the present.