Imagine a cinema projector. I think that most people will be aware that the illusion of a movie (at least pre-digital age) is created by many, many single transluscent pictures or frames moving very quickly across the projector, which projects light through them onto a blank screen. Each frame can be considered the equivalent of what you call a 'moment'. Each frame blocks out some of the projected light in a unique way, creating a unique pattern on the screen. When this happens in very quick succession, it seems as though things are happening on the screen. A story seems to be unfolding.
How does all this affect the light which emanates from the projector? Does the light get involved in the story? Does it ride the emotional rollercoaster with the characters? Does it root for the hero, hoping for a happy ending?
Or is the light totally unaffected by the whole process, unchanging, unchangable? Another day, another movie. How about the screen? Is it indellibly stained by the blood of a dastardly murder or brutal war scene? Or does it remain entirely unchanged?
Linear time can be likened to the reel of film that moves across the lens of the projector, creating a story, moment by tiny moment. Often the idea 'eternity' is considered in terms of 'a really really long period of linear time'. It might be more helpful to consider eternity as entirely outside linear time, not part of the time story at all. Just as the light is unaffected by the movie, but the movie cannot be shown without it, so eternity is entirely outside linear time, yet the myriad linear time stories cannot appear without it.
Sometimes attention turns away from the dancing patterns on the movie screen and considers the projector and the light.
Next time you visit the cinema, take a little look over your shoulder.
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