Is Time Real?

Time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, another dimension added to height, depth and width to give meaning to the physical principle that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

Time has no meaning in and of itself. It must be part of the physical universe in order to exist. That is why scientists (Einstein, Hawkins) call it the "Space-Time Continuum" and why they argue that before the Big Bang time was not there.

The modern scientific understanding of time is surprisingly very close to the mystical idea that time is in fact just an illusion.

Time as illusion is a common theme in Buddhist thought (Suzuki) and several thinkers from different time periods and cultural backgrounds (e.g. Parmenides, Zeno, Eckhart, Maharaj, Ibn ‘Arabi) have also reported similar ideas, arguing that realized spiritual masters do not perceive the passing of time from present moment to present moment because just an artefact of our psychology.

If you drop out of the wheel, all change disappears. Then you are here and always here. That state is the real search of all true seekers: how to get out of this wheel of birth and death, how to enter into life eternal where no birth ever happens and no death either, where nothing begins and nothing ends, where all simply is -- how to enter into this God. Just the other day, I was saying God means 'that which is'... how to enter into that which is? These are the sutras by which to enter into that which is. (Osho)

Therefore, time does not refer to a container through which events move, nor to an entity that flows, but rather part of a fundamental intellectual structure, together with space and number, within which humans sequence and compare events.

Going back to science, special and general theories of relativity bring significant substance to support the claims that time is not an absolute truth.

Special theory of relativity shows how time changes with motion. This theory says that space and time are really aspects of the same thing: spacetime. When you move through spacetime at a speed, relative to other objects, close to the speed of light (i.e. 300,000 kilometers per second), time goes slower for you than for the objects/people you left behind. You won't notice this effect until you return to those stationary things.

Because time is relative to the speed one is travelling at, there can never be a clock at the centre of the universe to which everyone can set their watches. Your entire life is the blink of an eye to an alien travelling close to the speed of light.

General relativity theory – the current description of gravitation in modern physics – unifies special relativity and Newton's law of universal gravitation, describing gravity as a geometric property of spacetime. According to it, gravity warps time: the greater the gravity the more rapidly time passes.

There is a lot about time that we still do not know nor understand, and possibly never will. To me, the interesting aspect of the all discussion is that once more, science and philosophy (here intended more as spirituality) are converging even though they stated from different premises, used different approaches, and evolved over different periods.