Michael,

One aspect that doesn’t seem to get much mention, as either an arrow, or a circle, is the question of which way does time flow? Is it that the process goes past to future, or that the patterns being generated go future to past?

Obviously we are all progressing from prior to succeeding moments, of this ever present present, but that raises the question, that if the present is the point of reference, which is more real? The present moment, or the events experienced?

We are mobile organisms, so the sequential process of perception would seem to be a function of navigating our space, yet change does happen.

That human culture effectively arises from our ability to tell stories and build communal knowledge, does make the narrative flow foundational to humanity. Yet the evident fact is that tomorrow becomes yesterday(effect), because the earth turns, relative to the sun(cause).

So maybe it is the state of the present that is the only reality and time is emergent from its dynamism. Like temperature.

Then there is the fact that while the consciousness is always only present, the thoughts and feeling it manifest come and go. Though what would consciousness be, without what it is conscious of?

It’s circular, like the yin and yang are circular. Each within and balancing the other.