Past, present and future are practical designations and relative truths.
They arise from a basic recognition of impermanence.
The basic recognition of impermanence arises from a basic perception of change.
The basic perception of change arises with the necessity for a living being to be aware of it’s environment.
Outside of a living awareness, there is no past, present, and future. What is there?
What is there includes living awareness and it’s environment,
includes the basic perception of change,
includes the basic recognition of impermanence,
includes practical designations of past, present and future.
Includes, in other words, being, time, life, impermanence, change, awareness-and their negations.
Is there a word for ‘it’?
There are very, very many.
Reality, the Ultimate, Absolute, Truth, Being, Brahman, Atman, God, The One
For Buddhists, the word “tathata” is often used.
Tathata is “suchness”, “thusness”, or less eloquently, “what-is-ness”.
I cannot help but note whatever I might want to call time is essentially a point of view. However, when I simply want to be in time, I understand it as the soul of creation.