An Orientation to TSK

Excerpt from an Orientation to TSK (in Sacred Dimensions of Time and Space)

“Time and space offer beauty beyond measure and power beyond reckoning. When knowledge can free itself from the barriers to understanding that we have imposed, we know this to be so. Within each point of time or space infinite depths are available. In the field of space, the potential for transforming insight beckons, inviting us to claim our rightful inheritance.

Long ago-perhaps when we were children, or per­haps when the human race was still young-we chose a way of knowing that put time and space at a distance. Ever since, we have structured our lives accordingly.

Yet the narrow line we choose to walk, the tunnel into which we compress our being, does not fit our experience or our capacities. Our lives are filled with countless reminders that time and space are more than we imagine. Despite the limiting identities we assign, the radiance of being shines through. The moment we look, a different kind of knowledge is available.

The Time Space Knowledge vision (TSK) initiates an inquiry that invokes our own inborn capacity to know. It asks us to take full responsibility for the knowledge we live by and the choices through which we shape our lives. TSK introduces us to the sacred symbols of time and space, which have the power to reveal the whole of knowledge to the whole of mind.

TSK engages the knowledge that guides us, the time that offers us opportunity, and the space that allows us to participate in reality. The more we understand how these three elements interact, the more the limits we have learned to take for granted dissolve. We do not have to proceed step by step; we can turn reality around … just like that! This freedom is our birthright.

At present we are bound to a particular understand­ing of space and time, one that makes certain limits seem very real. For instance, we accept that time unfolds from one moment to the next, that our thoughts can only move from one type of thing to another in a predict­able sequence, and that specific events invariably take a fixed length of time. The idea that we could experience an hour in a single minute seems sheer nonsense.

Similarly, while everyone agrees that space can accommodate a vast range of appearance, we do not ask how to benefit from that allowing. We know that there is no going outside space, but we do not see the pres­ence of space everywhere as an offer and an invitation. We assume that space operates in certain well-defined ways. But who has set these limits? Could there be space within space? What if we discovered that vast realms can fit into very small enclosures?

Such examples could be multiplied. We think in terms of ‘here' and ‘there', divide time into past, pres­ent, and future, and classify knowledge into known and unknown. Intent on sizing up what appears in terms of its characteristics, we forget to notice that form itself depends on both time and space. Determined to use knowledge to our own advantage, we fail to ask whether there are ways of knowing that operate beyond our claims of ownership.

In our present way of understanding, time and space recede into the background. Yet time and space are more than just the background for appearance and expe­rience, and also more than special sorts of ‘things'. They are the partners whose dance whirls existence into being. Knowing that, we step into a different world.

Dialogue of Being

Fortunately, space and time are not affected by our attempts to tame them, nor is knowledge cut off from appearance when we fail to acknowledge it. This ongoing availability of time and space and knowledge lies at the heart of the TSK vision.

TSK invites us to see ourselves as an expression of time, space, and knowledge. This suggestion will seem surprising until we actually begin to put it into effect. Then we start to notice the restricted patterns that presently shape our lives, and to understand the pat­terned dynamic that has set them in place. As insight moves from the realm of theory to actual embodiment, remarkable possibilities open.

The key to activating the vision is inquiry. We can use imagination, visualization, speculation, common sense-whatever helps to sharpen our questions and awaken our intelligence. Good questions are an invi­tation to knowledge to sit at our table as our honored guest. Having accepted our invitation, knowledge brings with it time and space. If we treat all three with appreci­ation and respect, they soon begin to speak among them­selves, giving us the rare privilege of listening in.

Inspired by the ongoing dialogue of time, space, and knowledge, inquiry deepens of its own accord. New knowledge arises, and while we are not its authors, we can certainly be grateful participants, joining in as creative vision and dynamic action begin to manifest. If the invitation we have extended is genuine, and if we hold it open by vigorously exercising the knowledge already available to us, there seem no limits on what knowledge can do and where it can lead us.

Multifaceted inquiry has a vast, transforming effect. Space grows more spacious, and seems infused with light. Its countless dimensions easily accommodate mind, easing the tensions that thoughts and emotions so readily accumulate. Responding to the openness of space, time begins to show us new faces. We discover we can find ways to enter into the rhythms that move beneath the surface of time's linear directionality. In turn, a knowledge attuned to space and time is able to command appearance differently. Our human problems may become much more workable.

All this happens of its own accord. It is as though space has been holding open the door, time has been waiting for us to dive in more deeply, and knowledge has patiently held itself available until the moment we are ready to ask. Now that time has come.  Now we can enjoy the freedom that is our birthright.

Setting Knowledge Free

If each of us embodies time, space, and knowledge, why must we make special efforts to activate that embodiment? The answer is that we have adopted a narrow approach toward knowledge, turning it into a prized possession. But our attempts to hold on to knowledge have a paradoxical effect. Instead of opening freely, knowledge is cut off, forced into tight corners.

Each of us learns to seize on certain fundamental facts as true, and these become our body of knowl­edge. But because we cling so tightly to this treasure of knowledge, we may distort it. At the least, we cut off its capacity to grow and take on new forms.

Suppose that the inspiration of new knowledge con­vinced us to open our clenched hand and let knowledge go free. Would we have lost anything? Or would knowl­edge at last be able to celebrate its own power, shifting and metamorphosing into something far more splendid that we had been able to possess?

One way to set knowledge free is to rethink the most simple and fundamental questions: Who am I?  What am I doing on this earth? How shall use my time?  It is easy enough to come up with answers in words-even TSK words. For instance, we could say: “I am knowledge … I am time … I am space.” But these are just words. Can we question the one who gives those answers? Can we question how to question? Can we invite time and space to give the answers?

In TSK, it is questioning that matters, for answers are just one more thing to hold on to tightly. Questioning loosens our grip on the presupposed. Each time our questions bring an assumption into the light of inquiry, we experience the sense of freedom that comes with greater access to time, space, and knowledge. Questions let us test our experience and challenge the structures we take for granted. Through questioning, we enact a vision of time, space, and knowledge as the great guardians of being.

The TSK vision invites us to initiate our own ques­tioning, and to judge for ourselves how valuable such inquiry can be. That is the whole of its message. Once the qualities of knowingness are in operation, the clar­ity at which philosophy aims, the radiant purity that inspires ethical conduct, and the penetrating certainty sought in religious traditions develop of their own ac-cord as an outpouring of vitality and sensitivity.

In TSK, knowledge is primary. The growth of knowl­edge automatically promotes all disciplines and fulfills all goals. Once we learn to set it free, knowledge can celebrate its own capacity, quickly transcending the structures of repetition on which we so often rely.

Questioning as Knowledge

Throughout human history, there has been a ten­dency to try to capture knowledge in the form of labels, words, and specific belief systems. But such structures, useful though they may be as tools, do not do justice to knowledge. Systems of belief are the tracks that knowledge leaves behind. If we substitute them for knowledge itself, they begin to proliferate, crowding out a deeper knowing and the inspiration it can bring. When this pattern is operating, creating an opening for real knowledge to enter will require tremendous effort.

Questioning and open inquiry offer a far more immediate approach to knowledge. When we question our own experience and the nature of what appears, we let knowledge inspire and bring alive what time and space present. When this dynamic has been engaged, knowledge develops freely of its own accord, and life becomes far richer.

When knowledge is understood as the specific beliefs and convictions we happen to consider true, the value of questioning can easily be misunderstood. From such a perspective, it may make sense not to question what seems well-established, not to risk the destruc­tion of what has been carefully constructed. Knowledge has taken on a substance of its own, and the integrity of this construct must be preserved.

The TSK response to such concerns is a renewed invitation to inquiry, to awaken a different kind of knowledge. If there are truly limits on what the human mind can know, we need not fear coming up against them. But if those limits are self-imposed, if they arise out of convictions whose origins remain obscure, it seems wrong to cut off inquiry. Why settle for less than might be possible? Why not explore the alternatives?

Whatever we know or experience as real is also an object of human knowledge. Since we have named it, we know that it depends on the naming power of the mind; since we experience it, we know that it arises out of our ability to interact with whatever appears. In other words, reality as we know it must reflect our own capacity for knowledge. This does not mean that the mind creates reality, but it does mean that mind and what the mind knows are inseparable.

In that case, could the mind know differently? Simply leaving this as an open question gives inquiry the scope it needs. By inquiring, we get feedback from our inquiry, allowing us to refine our questions. The answers we arrive at and hypotheses we pursue may prove inaccurate, but as long as we do not seize on these answers as the truth, that is a secondary concern. Mistaken views can also be the foundation for growth and new perspectives. Like time, knowledge has its own dynamic. As it changes through time, it also grows, allowing for transformation.

TSK is not concerned with adding to the positions and definitions that make up the standard body of knowledge. Even its most surprising-or plausible-theories and hypotheses should be heard as specula­tions, as invitations to inquiry rather than pronounce­ments about what is so. Nor does TSK ask us to abandon the beliefs we may have developed. It is no friend of an easy skepticism or cynicism. Instead, TSK asks us to look for the knowledge within conventional knowl­edge-the knowledge that founds our beliefs and certifies our convictions.

The TSK approach is like adding a catalyst to a chemical reaction: Suddenly things that had long lain dormant began to fizz and bubble, sending off bursts of light and energy. Solids melt away, revealing time, space, and knowledge at work. We awaken our own intelligence and discover something fundamental about our own being.

Like anything else put into words, TSK can become a set of beliefs or a methodology-one that some people possess and others do not. There is nothing surprising in this, for history shows that human beings love to lay claim and incorporate; to insist on their identities, their ownership, and their being ‘right'. For TSK, however, such an approach is deadly. If TSK is established as a system or an ‘ism', it loses its power to free time and space from the ‘truth' of what we already know to be so. Then the ongoing boycott of knowledge will continue in operation.

To deal with this danger, TSK requires our full par­ticipation. Can we strengthen knowledge through our questioning?  Can we invite it into the innermost part of our own lives? Can we pound on the ‘is' of each ‘ism' and question each establishment?

Once we commit ourselves to knowledge-to explor­ing it, allowing it to open, and sharing it with others- knowledge itself will do the rest. Focusing on our own experience, our own awareness and thoughts, our own embodiment, we create the conditions for mind to unite with space and time. We can relax our demanding, allowing the fullness of space to open and the dynamic of time to emerge.”  (SDTS, pp. xix-xxvii)

Re: An Orientation to TSK

There are a number of good introductions to TSK.  Two can be found at the TSK Association website:  http://www.tska.info/#anchor1585791

Here, in addition to the excerpt above, I wanted to post some of Tarthang Tulku's comments about what sets TSK apart from other traditions and approaches to knowledge.  I think his remarks are interesting to consider in light of the “postmetaphysical turn” in Integral Theory, and I probably could have posted this excerpt on the Integral TSK board just as well, but it's also appropriate here, since it provides a helpful introduction to TSK by pointing out what it is not up to…..

~*~

“I have often been asked how TSK could be classified as a field of study. The question has no easy answer. It is not philosophy or psychology and not religion. Perhaps it could be seen as an adventure of the mind, with the potential to branch out in many directions. For some­one knowledgeable in a particular field, TSK may be able to inspire new ideas related to that discipline. For others, TSK may stimulate clarity and a sense of value.

My own view is that TSK should not be considered its own discipline, at least in the sense that it conflicts with other approaches to knowledge. I see no contradic­tion between TSK and my own Buddhist background, just as I see no conflict between TSK and any other tra­dition of knowledge.

Since this issue of the relationship between TSK and other kinds of study or practice has continued to draw considerable attention, perhaps it would be helpful to list briefly some of the ways in which TSK studies differ from other approaches to knowledge:

*  TSK does not put forward claims regarding an absolute. In fact, it does not specify any form of substance or reality at all. From a TSK perspective, such definitions and claims inevitably generate con­ceptual structures. Once such structures are seen as anything more than tools for investigation, they limit knowledge, encouraging the formation of terri­tories and positions that soon come to take priority over inquiry and insight.

*  TSK does not maintain the existence of a creator or creative force responsible for appearance. Identifying such an originating source is another instance of the tendency to assign labels and then make those labels the basis for limitation. For instance, readers of earlier books in this series might say that TSK attributes creation to a kind of magical operation. But the label ‘magic' is just another way of limiting what arises. The temptation to rely on labels in deal­ing with TSK is strong, for ordinary understanding depends on labels, and we are usually interested only in what we can understand. But applying this approach to TSK or any other form of inquiry will only ensure that what is already familiar to us will perpetuate itself. There will be no opportunities for a new vision to make itself known.

*  TSK does not teach faith in any outside force, nor does it counsel devotion toward a higher being, such as God or the Buddha. It suggests that the knowl­edge we require is implicit in the self's embodiment in space and time. The highest values are immedi­ately available to us.

*  TSK does not pursue knowledge through beliefs founded on reasons. Instead, it proceeds through active inquiry, which is seen as embodying knowl­edge directly.

*  TSK does not investigate a subject located some­where else, apart from the self. It looks directly to awareness.

*  TSK follows no model or doctrine. All knowledge can be a part of the vision.

*  TSK does not structure reality in terms of a hierar­chy that proceeds from higher to lower or good to bad. Though the vision sometimes relies on lan­guage that makes such distinctions, the fundamen­tal outlook is that knowledge understands all mani­festations to be equally good. Although the process of inquiry will initially proceed step by step, moving from level to level, this sequence of unfolding does not reflect any inherent characteristic of appear­ance.

*  TSK does not offer any moral code. From a TSK perspective, being itself is perfect, exhibiting in all its facets the qualities of life and beauty. Since this is so, there is no need to seek perfection. The natu­ral way of being is intrinsically sacred. When we exhibit this perfection in our own actions, vows and precepts are not required.

*  TSK does not rely on prayers or ceremonies, nor does it ask anyone to make offerings or practice the accu­mulation of merit. As ritual it offers creative action, as ceremony it presents the challenge of evoking knowledge, as prayer it relies on the silent stillness of awareness. Instead of outer gestures, it invites the inner healing of the heart that comes when knowl­edge exhibits freely in time.

*  TSK does not rely on worship. In place of communion it offers self-understanding; in place of initiations, it looks to the natural flow of knowledge within appearance. The natural healing that comes through knowledge is sufficient to cure all suffering.

*  There is no path in TSK: no ‘from' or ‘to' or going from one to the next. All such movements arise within the linear unfolding of time, and TSK calls that unfolding itself into question. Since whatever appears is a part of the vision, there is nothing ‘higher' to understand or unite with. Ordinary mind, everyday perceptions, and the structures of com­mon experience are already the full embodiment of knowledge in time and space.

*  TSK relies on no higher authority, apart from knowl­edge itself. Within knowledge, there are no divi­sions, discriminations, or exclusions. The followers of any school or teaching can study TSK, drawing from it whatever benefit they can.

*  TSK does not require attacking the positions or beliefs or attitudes of the ego. The ego can be seen as a manifestation of a narrow focal setting on time and space and knowledge; it functions as a ‘bias-stander'. As space and time and knowledge open more fully, this narrowness automatically drops away in favor of a more comprehensive knowingness.

*  TSK does not assign guilt or define rules that are not to be broken. Even actions that have harmful consequences can become the source of knowledge. Whatever has happened in the past, we can be grate­ful for the present opportunity to recognize and accommodate knowledge in all its manifestations.

­

*  TSK does not directly teach the practice of love or compassion toward others. However, once the nar­rowness of the positions we hold drops away, we find that we interact more easily with others, and out of this openness love and compassion emerge as natu­ral responses. As we grow more familiar with the vision, we realize that we all share the same space, are related in time, and speak a shared language that embodies knowledge. Any basis for discrimination between self and others falls away.

*  TSK does not separate the real from the fictional in any ultimate sense. From a TSK perspective, what­ever we do can be understood as the play of time in space. However, the play does not reject what is seri­ous, nor does it mistake being playful for seeking out amusements. To play without concern is to respond appropriately to all concerns, and being playful does not mean ignoring or rejecting the meaning of what arises. This is play as exhibition: action as the appearance of beauty.

*  TSK does not emphasize good works or benefiting others through acts of charity. However, TSK spon­taneously offers the knowledge that can bring an end to suffering and release pain into knowledgeability. In this sense, the vision itself is a gift.

It may seem from this list that TSK is hostile to sys­tems of belief that make claims about reality or proper forms of conduct. But this conclusion would only limit the vision. Devotion and rituals do not ‘belong' to the TSK vision, but they do not contradict it. The path of religion can open to knowledge, and so can the path of science. Nothing in the vision precludes drawing on such traditions and approaches.”  (Dynamics of Time and Space, pp. xvi-xxi )

Re: An Orientation to TSK

Sounds like everything in TSK, even the brief introduction given here, serves as bare-boned finger-pointing …to what cannot be defined, confined, refined or otherwise reduced to thought. My teachers call it That. I like to call it This, because it’s here.

Quote - Tarthang Tulku:

* There is no path in TSK: no ‘from’ or ‘to’ or going from one to the next. All such movements arise within the linear unfolding of time, and TSK calls that unfolding itself into question. Since whatever appears is a part of the vision, there is nothing ‘higher’ to understand or unite with. Ordinary mind, everyday perceptions, and the structures of common experience are already the full embodiment of knowledge in time and space.

Ah!

Immensely satisfying.

And how ironic. Now that I’m no longer looking for confirmation, I see it more and more. Even on the internets. Yes, plural. Just ask our Prez.

M

Re: An Orientation to TSK

Balder and all, I finally now got around to reading these two first posts and responses. Such good stuff. So well expressed. So much. I feel reinforced in the possibility of living and feeling openess and freshness. I feel many inward nods as I read these pithy explanations and offerings to be open and to explore life with our human capacities - “birthright”.

There was only one place in these two posts of yours where I glitched and wondered, “huh?” It doesn't feel like a big deal for me, but I wondered why he used the word “symbols” when he said in Excerpt from an Orientation to TSK (in Sacred Dimensions of Time and Space)
“TSK introduces us to the sacred symbols of time and space, which have the power to reveal the whole of knowledge to the whole of mind.” I suppose he is explaining how through the sacred symbols that we usually are involved with and that point to actual existing time and space, we can come to know closer to their actuality. I was expecting him to say that we are being introduced to time and space that exist behind and I suppose thru the symbols. Anywho.

This stuff feels steadying for me. I hope that the steadying is a healthy thing that knowledge and an appreciation for space and time intrinsically give and not just more of the stability and sense of certainty that comes from having a belief to organize oneself by. I wouldn't be surprised if it is plenty of the latter. Darn.

Thanks, for this info.

Plenty of humor for us all.

Re: An Orientation to TSK

hi balder-

i've tried to come to grips with your initial post on this theme.

would you please give me a definition of the words 'time' and 'space' in the context they are being used. …or point me to a definition?

thanx

the best-
basho

Re: An Orientation to TSK

Hi, Basho,

Welcome to the pod.  The TSK vision uses these terms in some unique ways.  Of course, included within the overall definitions of these terms are the 'ordinary' ones – space as open, physical expanse; time as an abstract index for ordering events; knowledge as information and understanding – but the definitions are broader than this.  There is a convention in the TSK vision of speaking of three levels of time, space, and knowledge.  The following page on the TSK Association website provides some quotes which give you a taste for how these terms are defined at each of these levels.

Definitions for Different Levels of Time, Space, and Knowledge

Best wishes,

Balder

Re: An Orientation to TSK

Hey Balder and all - yesterday I got my “When It Rains” (WIR) book and downloaded my CD onto my tower and laptop. I've been making my way into the intros to WIR.

I started a rudimentary journal on my Mac tower where I am now and where I usually work and hang out. (My first quote that I wrote, and that I may want to put on my office wall along with other framed ones is: “If we do not insist on our limitations, nothing is holding us back.” VOK xvii. It's not my favorite evocation, because it could be made a little too catchy and popularesque, bumperstickerish - but it is simple and may hold a door open, stay as a mantra-like invitation for someone for awhile, as well. And more commonly, I'm guessing, it will be kept as a clever dictum with little substance. Hmm. Maybe I won't. I do want something by TT to grace my wall - it will probably be something about inquiry, the questioning being so important. Hmm - what do I know - what limitation is messing with me at the moment? Smiley emoticon.)

I've read through a couple of prefaces to TSKs and am stoked about how TT spoke to many of my questions and thoughts already - especially in VOK. Yeah!

Now over time we'll see how I do with the committment and perhaps discipline of following someone else's pace and direction.

I'm sure that I'll be having thoughts and questions and probably will post some here. F-F