Typo-
Headline should read
"Time, of sorts, does exist eternally before a 'self'"
I think it helps to remember our 'minds' are a temporary manifestation, configuration, and development of our 'primary presence' and even though we have learned to manipulate subtle energy or life force into repetitive patterns or images...'minds' are not 'always present' as primary presence 'IS'.
We know our Beta reality is just a reflection of our predominant repetitive thoughts
SO
how can I now state that somehow time is real and outside of our control as the 'conscious' primary presence we are now becoming?
What we label our
'waking dream reality' or '
subjective reality' or
'physical reality' or however we want to label it is the arrangement of subtle energy/life force/primary presence into repetitive patterns causing the energy/life force to appear as a 'form' whether it's a thought, a qubit, or my dog Fido.
FOR ANY TEMPORARY IMAGE (repetitive energetic pattern) to appear in an eternal setting or 'field' (existence,eternity, 'always present presence', or the NOW) means ...........
THERE MUST BE AN OVERALL REPETITIVE UNCONSCIOUS CHARACTERISTIC OR 'CYCLE' TO THE BEHAVIOR OF EXISTENCE (the always present PRESENCE).
This cycle could be considered 'time' only it's not linear which is necessary in the traditional use of the concept.
So it is like 'time' in the sense that it's a consistent predictable reoccurring movement or activity that is the largest movement in reality..but unlike the smaller ones we can count and use to measure (earth,sun,etc)...the 'eternal cycle' has no beginning, will never end, and can't be counted or measured against anything else...there is nothing else to compare it against (existence is all inclusive).
And when you break it down it is really just the repetitive energetic activity of expansion and contraction or a vibrational 'pulse' of sorts.
But it is 'constant' or 'eternal' and unconscious or creation and us wouldn't be here.
For more on this idea see
The Eternal Cycle