Time

Time is defined as "a nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future, an interval separating two points on this continuum; a duration."


Time is an abstract principle and a law of being and of doing. Time, space and eternity form the ninth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is immortality through conquering space and time.

Time is the principle of form under which we relate events. The form of an antecedence and sequence model makes possible all outer experience. The idea of time is born in the interval between happenings. Time governs the law of mental synthesis, and binds things together.—Edna Lister.






Edna Lister on Time

Time is a principle of form, the principle under which we relate events. The form of an antecedence and sequence model makes possible all outer experience. Time governs the law of mental synthesis, and binds all things together.

You build and relate your different actions to time so you can, by contacting one time, find your way to all others. The idea of time is born in the interval between happenings. You know by memory, by recall. In memory, events seem to succeed each another, and from this arises the experience of succession, which we call a sense of time.

The succession of moments and events gives us the basis for number. The objective basis of number involves the distinctness of objects. Counting involves the establishment of a unit. Units are determined by the mind itself: Work, temperature, time, space. A unit is an abstract form of the act of position, and number arises from the repetition of this act under a synthetic form of counting.—Edna Lister, Immanuel Kant: Philosophy, December 23, 1935.


The payment for stolen time is to put more fervor in everything you do. Otherwise, you fill your memory cells with guilt and regret.—Edna Lister, September 25, 1950.


Don’t have squinched-up hopes and plans. Don’t say, I’m through; I’m old. Time cannot grow old. Live time the right way and you cannot grow old. Time is filled with the greatest of ideas. You still have time to write the great book, paint the great picture, greater works to manifest. The sun, moon and stars do not age; God does not age.—Edna Lister, Truth, Your Plan, October 21, 1956.


Forever is a measure of time in space.—Edna Lister, Revelation, the Beast With Ten Horns, June 10, 1958.


We all have the same amount of time, yet some people seem to have more time than others. A typical phone conversation frequently contains such phrases as, I didn’t have time. I just didn’t get anything done. Or, Oh, I had such a good time today. Everything went so smoothly. I finished everything I had planned and had time to spare.

Why is there such an apparent inequality of Time? There are degrees of health, wealth and social life, and you measure them all in time; they depend on how you use time. The River of Life is harmony. You tune into its current, face the Light and ascend. If you tune out and resist the River of Life, its current drags you under because you are not in harmony with life.

Use joy as a tuning fork to find time’s harmony. When you flow with the current, you lose all rigidity of action. You can tune in the music of the spheres, a joy vibration. The secret is to shut out worry. You can ascend even while doing mundane tasks and do more in a short time than you ever dreamed possible. Say joyfully, Now is the high time of salvation, and time does stand still.—Edna Lister, The 33 Degrees of Soul Conquering, November 3, 1959.


Mother Love and time eternal are one. All time is based in and on the principle of Mother Love, and all Wisdom is based in space. Time is always now with Mother Love. Space forever opens under Wisdom. Mother Love and Father Wisdom are ways of life. Mother Love, where selfless, is God’s timing. Father Wisdom is God’s spacing where selfless.

Time without space is lifeless. Time needs a space for action. If Love is bound or limited, no action can result. To take advantage of time eternal requires space. Universal Mother Love transcends time and space, being eternal and everywhere simultaneously.—Edna Lister, Eternity Is Now Mine, May 9, 1965.


A world was formed "in the beginning" when God used Mind to breathe; the Word exploded and Creation opened. The Word was God as Mind in action as a planned, controlled explosion, a rhythmic pulsation filling all universes, which were then "void," with no form. The Word, acting as Mind upon Substance, began to build up enough condensed Power to last a whole Day of Manifestation.

God first created a place, space, which He then filled with principle and personality. From principle and personality came the second great action, time. This was all Mind and contained the whole Plan of Creation for all universes, an unchangeable, unalterable and perfect Magna Carta, containing the Beginning and the End.—Edna Lister, Religion and the World, November 26, 1967.

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New Testament on Time

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.—Matthew 6:34.

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Old Testament on Time

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God. I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.—Ecclesiastes 3:1-15.

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Edna Miriam Lister
1884—1971
The original Christian Pioneering Mystic,
Platonist philosopher, American Idealist, Founder, Society of the Universal Living Christ, minister, teacher, author, wife, and mother.


Edna Lister


Etymology of time: Middle English, from Old English tima; from da-, to divide, from Greek daiesthai.


Time is an abstract principle.
Time is a law of being.
Time is a law of doing.
Time is a Via Christa Degree.


Quote

At the end of the 18th century, Kant suggested a subtle relationship between time and mindthat our mind actually structures our perceptions so that we can know a priori that time is like a mathematical line. Time is, on this theory, a form of conscious experience, and our sense of time is a necessary condition of our experience or sensation.—Bradley Dowden, Time


References

Dowden, Bradley. "Time,"Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ISSN 2161-0002 [accessed 4 March 2017].

Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, 2024.

The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV).

The Oxford English Dictionary: Compact Edition 2 volumes. Oxford University Press, 1971.


Related Topics

Eternity
Time, the Adjuster of Life
Time and Space: Edna Lister lecture outline; October 21, 1935.
Conquering Time: Edna Lister lecture outline; October 22, 1957.


Recommended Reading

Gendlin. Eugene T. Time’s Dependence on Space: Kant’s Statements and Their Misconstrual by Heidegger. Kant and Phenomenology, Thomas M. Seebohm and Joseph J. Kockelmans, editors. The Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, Inc., University Press of America. Inc. 1984.