 169. Time & Space |
In the condition of God-self-realization, space, time and infinity do not exist.
Time, space and infinity are concepts of the ego-I condition.
All time exists simultaneously. Therefore, all events are fixed and knowable in advance as well as during and after the fact of their apparent "happening."
Even so, the knowledge of any event depends on our ability to enter into the plane or moment of that event. Therefore, knowledge of events outside of conventional memory and perception depends on our ability to transcend the body-mind in its present space-time state, configuration, or definition. And true knowledge of what is not contained in the present space-time limits of our experience depends on self-surrender, deep consciousness, ecstasy or self-transcendence, and resort to ignorance, or the Condition of Being that transcends all past and present knowledge. In fact, then, the same requirements exist as a condition of perfect memory, foreknowledge, and total knowledge that exist as the Ultimate Condition of Transcendental Ecstasy or God-Realization. Such is the Paradox or Equation of Reality. The same Condition pertains at Zero, Everything, and Anything.
SPACE-TIME by Albert Einstein
All our thoughts and concepts are called up by sense-experiences and have a meaning only in reference to these sense-experiences. On the other hand, however, they are products of the spontaneous activity of our minds; they are thus in no wise logical consequences of the contents of these sense-experiences. If, therefore, we wish to grasp the essence of a complex of abstract notions we must for the one part investigate the mutual relationships between the concepts and the assertions made about them; for the other, we must investigate how they are related to the experiences.
So far as the way is concerned in which concepts are connected with one another and with the experiences there is no difference of principle between the concept-systems of science and those of daily life. The concept-systems of science have grown out of those of daily life and have been modified and completed according to the objects and purposes of the science in question.
The more universal a concept is the more frequently it enters into our thinking; and the more indirect its relation to sense-experience, the more difficult it is for us to comprehend its meaning; this is particularly the case with pre-scientific concepts that we have been accustomed to use since childhood. Consider the concepts referred to in the words "where," "when," "why," "being," to the elucidation of which innumerable volumes of philosophy have been devoted. We fare no better in our speculations than a fish which should strive to become clear as to what is water.
SPACE
In the present article we are concerned with the meaning of "where," that is, of space. It appears that there is no quality contained in our individual primitive sense-experiences that may be designated as spatial. Rather, what is spatial appears to be a sort of order of the material objects of experience. The concept "material object" must therefore be available if concepts concerning space are to be possible. It is the logically primary concept. This is easily seen if we analyse the spatial concepts for example, "next to," "touch," and so forth, that is, if we strive to become aware of their equivalents in experience. The concept "object" is a means of taking into account the persistence in time or the continuity, respectively, of certain groups of experience-complexes. The existence of objects is thus of a conceptual nature, and the meaning of the concepts of objects depends wholly on their being connected (intuitively) with groups of elementary sense-experiences. This connection is the basis of the illusion which makes primitive experience appear to inform us directly about the relation of material bodies (which exist, after all, only in so far as they are thought).
In the sense thus indicated we have (the indirect) experience of the contact of two bodies. We need do no more than call attention to this, as we gain nothing for our present purpose by singling out the individual experiences to which this assertion alludes. Many bodies can be brought into permanent contact with one another in manifold ways. We speak in this sense of the position-relationships of bodies (Lagenbeziehungen). The general laws of such position-relationships are essentially the concern of geometry. This holds, at least, if we do not wish to restrict ourselves to regarding the propositions that occur in this branch of knowledge merely as relationships between empty words that have been set up according to certain principles.
