From: "cforsyth" <cforsyth@v...>
              Date:  Thu Sep 26, 2002  5:19 pm
 

I was speaking with a friend recently and was asked about Buddhists conception of time. The friend said they could understand Time as a measurement, a unit that humans created to describe the changes to  matters. Because they, as Christians, were taught to believe in  eternity - from beginning to forever - they found they could visualize this "with time as x-axis, and running infinitely long, with our eternal spirit spanning across the x-axis infinitely". They felt to take away that x-axis is difficult for them, but that perhaps if they could, they would be able to "empty eternal spirit".
 

There are things that the Buddha taught in great detail not found anywhere else in the world prior to his teachings, such as his explanations on the namas, whether cittas, cetasikas or nibbana. And there are things that he says are acinteyyas or imponderables, which bring madness if one were to try to prove the details since it is beyond our human abilities, such as to find out precisely which kamma from which of the infinity of lifetimes this moment of seeing is the result of.

It seems that the most important thing to study is this present moment of experiencing arammanas, and all that relates to it.

Which is why although the rupas arise from conditions all over the universe, only the 7 that can be experienced by us would be essential to our understanding of things as they really are. The tree that fell in the forest can only be experienced by us as pannatti, as a concept, not as paramattha dhammas, except as a thought which is vitakka cetasika, and not 'a real tree' at all, nor as hardness or color or any of the other rupas that we actually experience now.

Time as it concerns us is when we experience arammanas as well, to my thinking. When we are in a coma or a deep sleep, without dreams or thinking of any kind, do we experience time? Do we ever experience it without thinking? Yet when we think about it, we do know that scientifically speaking, under normal conditions, the quartz crystal vibrates at such speed per second; therefore it can make us cheap watches that tell more accurate time than most of the winding watches. Nothing, however, can tell time more accurately than the speed of rupas relative to the namas' arising and falling away, since that is what the Buddha taught about in his omniscience.

Still, even in daily life, time seems relative to our other experiences, some memorable moments seem to last forever, while others are so fleeting we can hardly be sure it happened. For some, whose lifetime is as short as a fruit fly's, youth, maturity, old age and death comes in such a short span, whereas for a brahma billions of eons pass before their lifetimes are over, and some would be without any rupas to experience anything new, while others might be born with only rupas and no nama to experience anything either, for that eternity in time; even if a Buddha arose in the interval, they would be oblivious to him, and can't even think about the dhamma they already knew. What good is time then?

To wisely live one's life span would be to understand life and realities better, to my mind. Time would be wisely spent if one made use of each moment of sati to the fullest. Even to consider the dhamma at the theoretic level is to put mental development into practice, and at such moments there is also kusala free from lobha, dosa and moha, although the citta can be so fast that they can alternate as long as these kilesas haven't been eradicated. Lobha, desire for panna as concept is possible, while chanda for considering the dhamma is kusala. Panna is of course kusala and would function to know and not become attached, but know more and more deeply without clinging to anything at any stage, not even to nibbana, once that is glimpsed. To know about time is more or less the same thing, one must ask how it can cotribute to panna of things as they really are.

I think it is useful to see the changes, the tilakkhana, rather than cling to the concept of time of other religions, parallel to the eternal soul which doesn't exist, or even to nibbana, which can be experienced by the highest panna, and not within our daily experiences. What is beyond our present experience can only distract us from the present and doing the best we can at any given moment, including study realities as they really are. The present will become the past without our having benefited from it as best we can, something we may regret later on. This moment of seeing is unique, it has its special characteristics which are different from other moments as well as other arammanas through other dvaras. When it falls away it would be gone completely and none can tell but sati its exact characteristics that lasted only that split second. Without sati one might later wonder what it was that happened, and never be able to tell with any certainty.

From my perspective I see time as how one spends it, which should be with the most kusala and panna possible, to make it worth the time,