Past, Present, and Future on the Tip of a Hair

Our conceptions of inner and outer, one and many, begin to fall away when we look at the nature of interbeing and interpenetration of all things. But these ideas will not drop away completely as long as we believe that absolute space and absolute time are necessary for the appearance of all phenomena. In the early days of the Dharmalaksana (“Meditation on Phenomena”) school of Buddhism, space was viewed as an absolute reality outside the realm of birth and death. When the Madhyamaka (“Meditation on Noumena,” or essential nature) school began to develop, time and space were described as false conceptions of reality which depend on one another for existence. Since the principle of interbeing and interpenetration in the Avatamsaka Sutra refuses to accept the concepts of inner/outer, big/small, one/many as real, it also refuses the concept of space as an absolute reality. With respect to time, the conceptual distinction between past, present, and future is also destroyed. The Avatamsaka Sutra says that past and future can be put into the present, present and past into the future, present and future into the past, and finally all eternity into one ksana, the shortest possible moment. To summarize, time, like space, is stamped with the seal of interdependence, and one instant contains three times: past, present, and future.

The past in the present and future
The future in the present and past
Three times and several aeons in an instant
Not long, not short—that is liberation.

I can penetrate the future
putting all eternity into one instant.

The Avatamsaka Sutra continues, “Not only does a speck of dust contain in itself ‘infinite’ space, it also contains ‘endless’ time; in one ksana we find both ‘infinite’ time and ‘endless’ space.” 

Past present and future on the tip of a hair
And innumerable Buddha worlds as well.

Entering the World of Interdependence with the Theory of Relativity

The Avatamsaka Sutra says that time and space contain each other, depend on one another for existence, and are not separable by knowledge. The Relativity Theory of Albert Einstein, born 2,000 years later, confirms the inseparable relationship of time and space. Time is considered the fourth dimension of the four-dimensional space-time continuum. This theory refutes the hypothesis that space is an absolute and immutable framework inside of which the universe is evolving; the idea of absolute and universal time is simultaneously destroyed. It proclaims that space is simply the positional ordering of relationships of things among themselves in a given reference frame, and time is nothing more than the chronological ordering of events in a given reference frame.

Time, according to the theory, can only be local and not universal. This is why the concept “now” can only be applied to “here” and not to other places in the universe. Likewise, “here” can only be applied to this instant, “now,” and not to either past or future. This is because time and space can only exist together. They cannot exist independently of one another. This theory allows us to use scientific discoveries about the relative nature of space and time to break down our ideas based on “infinite” space and “endless” time, such ideas as finite and infinite, inside and outside, before and after. If we look up at the sky and wonder what exists beyond the outermost edge of the universe, we still do not understand relativity and still have not shed the idea of an absolute space that exists independent of things. And if we ask where the universe is heading, it is because we still believe in eternal, universal time. The Theory of Relativity contributes to the progress of both science and philosophy. It is a pity that Einstein did not take this superb spaceship even further on the voyage into the world of reality.

A Raft to Cross the River

With all new scientific discoveries comes the destruction of some old ideas of reality. One merit of the Theory of Relativity is that it overturned the classical ideas of time and space through its elaboration of the space-time continuum. According to the theory, everything has a four-dimensional structure and is located in curved four-dimensional space-time. Dropping the Euclidean three-dimensional straight-line model of the universe, Einstein imagined a universe composed of curved lines in a four-dimensional space-time continuum. In 1917 he proposed this model in which space is seen as a three-dimensional facet of a four-dimensional hyperspace, with time as an axis. If we try to imagine this for a sphere, we will no longer see a sphere; instead we will see a hypercylinder in which each minute is a separate sphere, much like the sequence of separate image frames of a film. Einstein’s universe is at the same time finite and infinite, because it is composed of curved space-time lines and not separate straight lines that belong either to time or to space. An ant walking on an orange can always go straight ahead, never reaching the end, because it is walking on a curved path. But the ant stays on the orange; that is its limit. Einstein’s model generalized straight lines and reconciled finite and infinite.

Yet if endless time and infinite space are only forms of perception, the curved four-dimensional space-time continuum, although closer to reality, is still just another form of perception. If space cannot be conceived of without the presence of “things,” the four dimensions of space-time are no more than mental creations in relation to the ideas of “thing” and “movement.” The space-time curve must be thought of as only an idea which replaces those of three-dimensional space, endless time, and straight lines. It must be left behind, the same way we leave behind the raft after we have crossed the river.

♦

From The Sun My Heart, Thich Nhat Hanh Copyright © 1988, 2006, 2020, 2024 courtesy of Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism, Inc., dba Parallax Press