Time is a mental concept. Like all concepts, it has a beginning and an end. When we speak of time, it is taken to have a beginning, a middle and an end. For instance, when we speak of the present hour, we talk of one hour having sixty minutes, starting from minute one to minute sixty. In between the first and the last minute are the remaining 59 minutes. Therefore, time is always conceived as being a block of time, with a beginning, a middle and an end. What has a beginning must have an end. When we say "born", it indicates a beginning. When we say "dead", it indicates an end. Therefore, birth and death are events in time. And time is a concept in the mind. Therefore, birth and death are just concepts in the mind.
Now, let us look at the present or the now. We can call this the present Age (just like there was an Ice Age, Stone Age, etc.) which as we know stretches over thousands of years. We talk of the present Millenium ( a block of time extending over 1000 years). In the same way, we talk of the present century, the present decade, the present year, the present month, the present day, the present hour, the present minute, and the present second. Even a second is thought of as having a starting point and an ending point. But modern science can tell you that the second can be further divided into a microsecond, and further into a nanosecond and so on. Therefore, there can be a present microsecond, a present nanosecond, a present nano-nano second and so on till there is actually no mentally comprehensible time at all and yet there is presence. Therefore, the present or the now is timeless. Therefore, this presence is timeless or beyond time or beyond any concept of time. Meaning thereby that even when there is no concept of time ( or beyond conceptual time as shown in the above example), you are still present and aware. The present is therefore beyond time, meaning that there is no beginning or end to this presence. What has no beginning or end is called eternal or beyond time. Therefore, the present is eternal. While time has a beginning and an end, the present which is timeless, has no birth or death and is therefore eternal.
Is it not common for you to get lost in thought or in some very interesting hobby or experience and then lose all sense of time? And yet you are still present. Even though one may not be aware of time, one is always aware of one's own presence or existence.
In deep dreamless sleep, there is no concept of time. If one is asked to note down the exact moment one went to sleep, it is not possible for one to do so. Let us say, you are asked to clap your hands the moment you fall asleep so your friend can note down the exact time you fell asleep. The moment you clap your hands you are actually awake!! We can only say what time we put our head on the pillow but never the exact moment we went into deep sleep. Similarly, we can only say when we opened our eyes but not the exact moment we wake up. This shows that in the absence of the mind, there can be no time. Therefore, time is but a mental concept. Yet, you cannot deny that you exist in deep dreamless sleep. Meaning, there is awareness in deep sleep. For on waking up you immediately know that you are. The one who went to sleep is the one who is awake and he/she knows that.
Therefore, when Awareness IS, time IS. When time IS NOT, Awareness still IS. Awareness is independent of time but time is not independent of awareness. You are the timeless, eternal, Awareness- beyond birth and death.
