Time Is Not What You Think: Unraveling Linearity and Returning to Wholeness

In nondual therapy, we don’t aim to fix the sense of self. Rather, we question its very foundation.

One of the most subtle and persistent foundations of the seeking mind is our relationship to time. We’re so used to living in a linear story - with a beginning, middle, and end -that we rarely stop to ask:

What is time, actually?And what if it’s not real in the way I assume it is?

In this post, we’ll explore how linearity is not a feature of reality, but a mental normalisation - a way the mind attempts to create coherence out of the felt sense of the living pulse of presence - into something manageable.

The Illusion of Linearity

Time often feels like a container we’re moving through: from past to future, cause to effect, lack to fulfillment. But in truth, time is not an inherent truth of reality. It’s a mental creation. A habit of seeing.

When we try to hold or grasp life - to pin down experience, to make it predictable, to know what it is as a 'something' - the recursive, rhythmic, breathing nature of reality is narrowed and collapsed into a linear artefact.

This is experienced as the timeline of a story of a someone as a central character. Life's boundless, infinite pulse limits itself. This time bound story is thus one of lack where the pulse becomes localised as a felt reality of constantly attempting to balance, bargain, and manage a deficit. This sense of a deficit is the 'me'. Lacking and dissatisfied -

The story of becoming.

The story that fuels seeking.

But this linear reality, although made of reality is not itself real. It is generated by the mind’s effort to normalise the mystery.

Reality is not a line - it’s a Pulse

Reality is not unfolding in a straight line. It is unfolding as this, all at once.

Experience is recursive,

self-arising,

radiant

not bound by before or after.

The sense of time is what arises when we overlook this and in the trance of the story of “me on a path, moving toward something better.”

But what if nothing is missing?

What if there is no path?

What if the “you” walking that path is the very illusion that’s being questioned?

The Role of Nondual Therapy

In nondual therapy, the aim is not to improve the self-image or solve every problem within the dream of time. Instead, we gently invite awareness to remember its natural state - unbound, curious, open.

The invitation is not to look at time not as a container you live in, but as a concept arising within you.

Here are a few direct pointers you can use in your own exploration:

Pointers for Direct Exploration

Can you find a boundary between past, present, and future - in direct experience?

Sit quietly. Without referring to memory or thought, where is the past?Where is the future? Is there anything here but this immediacy?

Let the body feel the answer. Notice how time requires thought to exist.

What happens when you stop trying to "get somewhere"?

Can you rest here, without needing to arrive?What remains when the search pauses, even for a moment?

This is not about stopping effort by force - but relaxing the need to move forward.

3. Is awareness moving through time - or is time appearing in awareness?

Notice thoughts, sensations, perceptions. They appear and dissolve. But what about awareness itself? Is it moving? Or is it still? Do you find time here?

What does this show you about where “time” actually lives?

Does presence have an edge? A beginning or end?

Rest as presence.Don’t try to feel present - just notice what is already here before the attempt.

Does it have a shape? A start? A history?

What if the idea of “progress” is the only thing keeping the seeker alive?

What if there's nothing wrong with you, nothing to fix, and no future awakening?Does the search survive without the belief in “not yet”?

Explore this with gentleness. The seeker may resist, but what lies underneath?

Returning to The Beat

The invitation here is not to reject time as a concept - it’s useful for calendars, appointments, and baking bread. But we no longer need to live inside it. We no longer need to let it define who we are, where we’re going, or how close we are to "getting there."

What you really are is the breath-like nature of presence - the intimacy of this moment, where time (and all associated story) is unborn.

Because when we stop seeking in time,we find that what we longed for was never absent. It was simply overlooked.

If this resonated, or you’re exploring nondual therapy and want to deepen into this fieldless field, you’re welcome to book experiential enquiry sessions with me here.

No fixing. No striving. Just the unraveling of what was never true.