You can just ask. You can ask the inside of your body how it works, and it will reveal itself to you. It reveals you to yourself.
The problem with time is that when you say, “the universe is X billion years old,” and you stack all of time together, it’s like an encyclopedia with us as the last page—yada yada. It makes it feel as if everything has been around for a very long time.
This might be true, but it’s not very relevant. At any point in time, it can be over in the next second, the next day, or the next year. So it doesn’t feel like that in real life. We hop from one state of this moment to another state of this moment.
Most people want to convince others of their standpoint. For instance, when somebody disagrees with vaccines and doesn’t want a vaccination, the initial response is often to call this “misinformation” and label it as flat-out dangerous.
Some people understand that it is better to have people in this universe you disagree with as well as people you agree with. It is better to have as many different opinions as possible than it would be if everybody had the same opinion. You might think it would be better if everybody wanted to get vaccinated, but that would actually be a bad situation, because it would mean that people stop thinking for themselves.
To be clear: the point is not whether you are right or not—that’s not relevant. It is extremely healthy to have different points of view around you.
A theory of everything therefore also doesn’t work. It’s like having one shared opinion, while what you really want is as many opinions as possible.
Have you ever noticed how sound “falls” in your head?
Moment of Silence
Look—now all the thoughts and feelings that have nested inside us like birds can fly out. They like that.
Consciousness Goes Round
The reason it’s hard to focus on your breath for ten seconds—and you drift away into thoughts—is not because there is something wrong with you. It’s because consciousness goes round.
For instance: breath → thoughts → physical sensations → thoughts, and so on.
The whole point is that you get distracted by thoughts. It’s better to let it “go round.” Just wait until your thoughts have rolled out completely, like waves. When you reach the end of your thoughts, consciousness goes round again.
This is, by the way, how you can reach “nirvana” in two minutes. There is no need to focus on your breath for minutes; that’s not the point. You only use the breath to pick up the rhythm, and then you see that it goes round.