A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga

...either the things of the outer world or the passing of "thought-things" through our minds. A day is merely our awareness of the sun's passage; an hour or a minute is simply a subdivision of that day, or perhaps our awareness of the clock's hands moving. It is merely the consciousness of the movement of things—the symbols of changes in things. In a world where nothing changed, there would be no such thing as time. Time is nothing but a mental invention. This is what the intellect reports to us.

Beyond the conclusions of pure abstract reasoning about time, we can see many examples of the relativity of time in our daily lives. We all know that when we are interested, time seems to pass quickly, but when we are bored, it drags along painfully original: "in a shameful manner". We know that when we are happy, time moves with the speed of a meteor, but when we are unhappy, it crawls like a tortoise. When we are interested or happy, our attention is largely pulled away from the changes happening in things because we are not noticing those things so closely. However, while we are miserable or bored, we notice every detail and change in things until the passage of time seems endless original: "interminable".

A tiny insect original: "mite" may, and does, live an entire lifetime—birth, growth, mating, reproduction, old age, and death—within a few minutes. No doubt its life feels just as full as that of an elephant living for a hundred years. Why? Because so many things have happened! When we are conscious of many things happening, we get the impression and...