A Matter of Time

When attempting to convey the meaning of a vision experience, a few conceptual problems arise. One of them has to do with our notion of time. In the physical world, we have come to perceive time in a linear fashion. We have an inner sense of how long an hour, a day, or a year should be. Each of us also has a notion of how rapidly the order of events in the world should proceed.

In the higher realms however, time does not move like this. In fact, the higher one goes in the spiritual context, the more time seems to cease entirely. The Hindu teachings, offer an explanation of how this relationship of time, motion, and density works. It is found in what they call the Wheel of Shiva. Perhaps, you have seen a bronze casting of this symbol someplace. It will appear in most Indian craft shops. It is a circle, with points of fire spaced along the outside edges, with the image of Shiva, is inside of the circle, dancing on the base.

If you watch a large wheel as it turns, you will notice, that the center moves much more slowly than the outside circumference. Thus, the center of the circle is the ‘highest’ point of awareness. At this point, there are only ‘thoughts’ of events. These ‘thoughts’, then move outwards to the edges of the circle. As they do, they become more and more dense. Eventually, they play themselves out, in the physical world and then dissipate into the void beyond the circle. The base of the circle, where Shiva is dancing, is where these ‘thoughts’ occur in the present time.

Even though the physical aspect of an event is ‘burned up’ in the present, the thought of it still exists in the circle. Thus, from the center of the wheel, you can see all the parts of its construction - all of time, past, present, and future. But, when you tune into this view of the wheel, there is not always, a frame of reference for what you will see. For instance, a view of something 2000 years in the future would be just as vivid as something that is going to happen tomorrow.