[msiyer]

All our senses, without exception, can only detect the past. Every sensor (natural or man-made, photodiode or eye) deals only with the past.

Say a novice practices to catch a ball on a windless day. He gets better. What exactly is he getting better at? He is getting better at guessing the trajectory of the ball based on past 3D positions of the ball.

This guesswork has its limits. He learns the limits on a windy day. He gets better with more practice on a windy day.

This new knowledge too has its limits. He learns that on a windy day at the beach.

The brain tries to guess the future based on a sequence of events. This is why detaching from senses is an experience like no other. Meditation, irrespective of the modality, is a way to detach from senses. We do not live in the past.

If our brains were not capable of holding memories and only of detecting one event at a time, two cars moving at vastly different speeds would look separated in space, but nothing more than that. I think, our senses, our ability to hold on to memories (past sensor data) of events and our ability to compare two past events combined makes the world animated. This also seems to give birth to the sense of passage of time. Which also could mean that time does not exist?

[orestarod]

Time exists, as is evident by the fact events happen. We just don't know what it is.