Space and Time or Space/Time?

I can't stay away from this inquiry. I find it so encompassing, so immanent.

First I would like to say that I do understand that time changes according to the speed of things, but I would like to address the linear time that scientists use when establishing the beginning of the Universe, about 14 billion years ago. That may not be as straight forward as we like to believe as the Universe has been expanding in accelerating velocity but never the less, it gives us at least an idea of how time and space can be closely related, or even of the same event.

Stay with me, it does have a bearing on our present lives, on the here and now, in our experience. Much of this inquiry of mine began from personal experience, from a spiritual insight. At the end of one of Andrew Cohens talks I “saw” myself stemming back all through history to the explosion of the Big Bang, almost as our comic book heroes leave a trace of color, a tail behind them, as they fly through the air, I saw my feet planted in the beginning of this Universe with my face pushing into the future from the ever present now. I extended all the way back to the center of that explosion, and still today ride the front wave of time (as we all do). I think Ken has described this as riding a lazer beam through the Universe.

Anyway, this made me think of the union, or rather, the singularity of space and time. As space began its expansion at the ineption of the big bang, time is its propensity, its duration. Now I just gonna give some headspinning ideas a push. Space seems to expand from any given point in the Universe (seen from anyone of us, the Universe expands outwards) and because of that, things move away from eachother in an ever increasing acceleration. Still, space itself seems to have a constant expansion speed, the speed of light. Galaxies with its stars and planets still hold eachother together due to gravitional force, while the galaxies (in regards to eachother) move away from eachother.

I will now try to bring this into our present experience. If, at this very moment, the space around us is expanding in breath taking speed (we don't notice it because we are so used to it) and that can be intimately linked with the seconds passing on our wrist watch. Every second is new, we know that, but do we know that that at every new second there is a new space? We sit in an ever new time in a new space all the time. What a rush, suddenly seconds are no longer slow and time is no longer an ordeal but a breath taking ever increasing velocity. Can you imagine it or even taste it?

The Buddha alludes to this when he speaks of the speed of the Dharma. Dogen, the founder of the Soto Zen school of Japan goes into detail about this phenomena in his major work, the Shobogenzo.

We find traces of this understanding in Christianity when we hear of “Gods speed”.

If we take it further and look at the implications it can have on our world view, we can see that this Universe of ours, the starry sky we see each night, is ever new. There is no “old” Universe out there. It has been “overlaid” with a new layer of itself, of time. Layers upon layers, nothing old stored. Like pictures on a movie screen, once there, next gone. And this is never ending news, here and now.

I believe Einstein must have tasted this union, this singularity of Time/Space.

I am no scientist so you might shred me to pieces about this totally non-scientific approach and correct me with a more true understanding of science. I welcome it. What are your thoughts?

Re: Space and Time or Space/Time?

We sit in an ever new time in a new space all the time. What a rush, suddenly seconds are no longer slow and time is no longer an ordeal but a breath taking ever increasing velocity. Can you imagine it or even taste it?

Yes, I can taste this vision. Inhabit it.

It does take a slight mental nudge to create and sustain the sense of speeding away in all directions. Once that subsides, it is either replaced by another very subtle movement of mind into concept-formation or…. there is this dynamic rest, it is so alive yet still… what they call the peace that passeth all understanding. And the marvelous thing is that it is also the most intimate we can ever get and the most exciting - at the same time.

I can never get enough of it, all its permutations are the best.

M

P.S. How about the Big Bang taking place every second? Every split-second…

As Seng Tsan, the 3rd Zen Patrirach, said: 

“Consider movement stationary
and the stationary in motion -

both movement and rest disappear.”

I love that guy. He was a leper, too, apparently.

Re: Space and Time or Space/Time?

Hi, Bjorn,

Thank you for sharing your “visionary” space/time experience.  When you contact space and time, not as distant abstractions, but as part of the fabric of your experience, things shift significantly.  The openness and accommodation of space and the vitality and creative dynamism of time are our flesh and bones, inseparable from the infinite play of perspectives which manifest as the abundance of selves and worlds.

Here are some quotes on space and time from the TSK tradition which I think relate, in some ways, to the spirit of the vision you are expressing.

~*~

Things are not only pervaded by space in an ordinary sense, they also are Great Space–infinite, open, and not excluding other things from being. Great Space does not become something. Nothing rises out of it. Nothing compromises it. Great Space remains infinite, accommodates everything, and yet `sets up' nothing and does nothing. (p. 19, TSK)

While all familiar things are separate and distributed over ordinary space, delineated partly by differences in position, they are all intimately connected insofar as their Great Space dimension is considered. `Distance between' becomes meaningless. (p. 112, TSK)

Space projects Space into Space, in an exhibition that ripples outward. In itself, the exhibition is simple; in fact, since it has no identity, nothing could be simpler… . Space projects Space into Space. There are no fixed points and no fixed identity, but quality and character remain. (p. 242, KTS)

The Great Space perspective shows everything to be more integrated–an infinite form … without an infinitely extended temporal dimension. From this perspective, different times express only an openness and accommodation of Great Space; they do not establish temporal succession, discrete moments, or `things in time'. (p. 81, TSK)

The vitality of Great Time is the direct expression or evidence of the openness of Great Space. Great Time plumbs the depths and breadth of Great Space. Just as ordinary sound needs space in which to occur, and in turn gives evidence of the extent of that space, so Great Time resounds in, speaks of, and sounds out the infinity of Great Space. All appearance is Great Space. Elaborating on this, we can see that although all form and partitions are Great Space, the givenness of form and the partitioning or drawing up of form into particular configurations is Great Time. Great Time shows or conveys (in both the common evocative and vehicular senses) Great Space by exhibiting infinite variety. (p. 99, TSK)

All energy whatsoever, all potential for the appearance of elements which we take as phenomena in time–volition, causation, and so on–derives from Great Time. (p. 126, TSK)

Great Time, through the intermediary experience of 'time', is the source of inspiration and spontaneity. It is the muse that all artists seek, the feature which allows us to perceive and celebrate the otherwise hidden dimensions of all the presentations that constitute life. (p. 142, TSK)

Time ceases to be seen as unfolding distributively, from one thing to the next. Instead, it penetrates directly through all meanings and partitions to show Great Space in a perfect, timeless encounter–timeless in the sense of being unconditioned and without ordinary duration. (p. 150, TSK)

Great Time is the universal bearer, but does not do, bear, or express 'things'. Great Time is not a thing or process….Great Time is neither law-like nor random. It is not a happening or a 'taking place' at all… . We might say that it is the inseparable partner of Great Space, the other member of the primordial marriage and love affair. (p. 159, TSK)

~*~

And since TSK claims that knowingness or awareness is inseparable from spacetime, here are some quotes on that dimension of awareness that TSK calls Great Knowledge.

~*~

The Great Space dimension … provides the field of possibility for a kind of wide-angle lens (Great Knowledge) to be used, rather than the narrow-angle lens corresponding to the presence of a `knowing' and `doing' mind-self. (p. 67, TSK)

Great Knowledge truly removes all doubts and uncertainties. But it does not know `the truth'. It does not limit reality in that way. However, it is accurate and well-informed of what is going on. (pp. 201-2, TSK)

Great Knowledge is the immediate and knowing dimension of all reality and experience. It is the interplay between the openness of Space and the expressive creativity of Time. The very way in which Space and Time set up distances, differences, finite knowing capacities, and obstacles to knowledge leaves everything directly `known'… . Great Knowledge is the interpreter and the demonstrator of this Space and Time, but it is not limited to the events which we single out as knowing acts. Knowledge is not something which knows something; it is simply the presence of reality as `knowingness'. (pp. 211-12, TSK)

Ordinary knowledge has particular uses and values, but Great Knowledge is irrepressible–it cannot be tied down or limited in any way. There is no way we can truly fail to comprehend it. And like ordinary knowledge, Great Knowledge always leads to more Knowledge of its own kind. It inspires itself and can grow infinitely. (p. 215, TSK)

We can see `knowingness' as primary. There are no `things' which convey it, there is just clarity itself ; 'knowingness' is inexhaustible and can be neither fragmented into little knowable packets nor foreshortened by known content of any sort. This does not mean that 'knowingness' is a vacant absorption, but rather that 'things' and encounters are themselves 'knowingness'. (p. 271, TSK)

Great Knowledge is not the view of an individual nor is it a perspective in the way that places emphasis on a subject-object dichotomy. Great Knowledge is `everything'–subject and object, all unified in a way that involves neither parts nor a `whole', nor even a unifying process. We can call this total communion the Body of Knowledge. (pp. 286-7, TSK)

Full knowledge dissolves the `distance' between knower and known that characterizes conventional not-knowing. With no distance, an intimacy of knowing emerges, and knowledge becomes inseparable from love. (p. xlviii, LOK)

We have learned to think of knowledge as linked to distance: to standing back and judging coolly. Now we know that knowledge is something quite different. It is the love we feel for all appearance, the love that unites all appearance. It is knowledgeability without separation. (p. 196, DTS)

Knowledge, the Great Magician, works its wonders. Through all of history, the manifestation of self-knowledge proceeds: The artist becomes the art and the art the artist. In all of space the Great Magician conjures the appearance of unconfined beauty. Unbounded momentum gives rise to experience. Though we cannot name or think or label this arising, its magical display is nothing other than our immediate presence. (p. 220, DTS)

~*~

Best wishes,

Balder

Re: Space and Time or Space/Time?

This is great indeed, thanks guys.

We can call this total communion the Body of Knowledge.

IN THE TIME OF FREEDOM

This is the time of freedom. Being no one. Having achieved no thing.
Time is real. Freedom is always in time. There is no intermediary. There is no second hand. Real time is always. There is no going back and forth. Everything always happens in time. You never get a second chance.

Real Time. Mind exists within real time. Real time is the arena of mind. Real time is the lifeblood of the Buddha.

Time is the Blood and Space is the Body
As blood runs through the body, time runs through space.

Time explodes like an exploding fuse wire, and all history is lit up at once. Gods' plan stand revealed and our lives find meaning. The Earth being the stage where God acts.

Re: Space and Time or Space/Time?

Bjorn : I believe Einstein must have tasted this union, this singularity of Time/Space.

I am no scientist so you might shred me to pieces about this totally non-scientific approach and correct me with a more true understanding of science. I welcome it. What are your thoughts?

It was either Minkovsky, Lobachevsky or Reiman (sorry it has been awhile) that first treated time as a spatial dimension within mathematics. Einstein then used that for his theories. So, …

Engineering is applied science

Science is applied mathematics

Mathematics is applied logic

Logic is applied thought

Thought is applied ignorance

Ignorance that duality can never

represent nor describe the unknowable.

love

e

Re: Space and Time or Space/Time?

Where you been e? That was brilliant, you should start a Zen greeting card company.

Re: Space and Time or Space/Time?

Hey holden,

Thanks… was on a 10 day retreat.

I am trying to get out of business.
The only business I enjoy these
days is the monkey business here :-)

Hope you and yours are well!

love

e