Here is the next verse from Padama’s, The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation:
If one knows how to apply in a threefold manner this knowing of the mind, all past knowledge lost to memory becomes perfectly clear, and also knowledge of the future, thought of as unborn and unconceived.
In the present, when the mind remains as it is naturally, it is ordinarily comprehended by its own time.
The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation
By Padma-Sambhava
Translated by Evans-Wentz
Oxford University Press
This verse asks us to take fresh look at the nature of time, not as some theory, but as our direct experience. For instance we consider what we remember and what we forget as past experiences, right? But when we are thinking of a past experience, we are remembering the past now in the present. So we are not really remembering the past. We are just seeing our thinking now in the present.
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What is past and future?
Ok, is our thinking occurring in the past or is it in future? Of course not, our thinking occurs in the present. We do not experience our thinking in the past, do we? So when we remember the past we are really just experiencing the present. So is there really such a thing as the past or is there just present?
To understanding this is the key to this verse. Otherwise you may think that Padma is talking about developing a perfect memory that even remembers what you had for lunch three years ago.
Or you may think that when you know the nature of the Mind you can predict the future with 100% accuracy. But all of these predictions occur in the present. And if these predictions come about, they come true in the present too. So if you look at your experience closely you will find that there is not a past or a future, only the present.
Then what is present?
The nature of present can hardly put it into words and thoughts, yet that’s the only thing we really experience. So what’s the meaning of: In the present, when the mind remains as it is naturally, it is ordinarily comprehended by its own time.
If we look at our experience of time it is not really measured by a clock. To get a sense of this just remember the most boring class that you ever took; how each minute seemed to take an hour. On the other hand think of your favorite activity and when you are involved in it how time seems to fly by. Towards the end of your life, even if it is very long, it may seem too short.
When your mind changes, time changes too
Moreover, when your mind changes, your sense of time changes too. For instance, your dream may seem to span three generations, but when you wake up and look at the clock, only a few minutes of waking time went by.
And then when your thinking is gone, like in the state of a deep sleep, time is gone too. That’s why when you are put to sleep in an operation and then wake up, you do not have a sense of how long the operation took. That’s because in your state, time didn’t even exist.
If it exists, it is very flexible
When we use our direct experience as the measuring stick, we see that in reality there is no past and future, only the present. Then how can there be time? But even if we conceive of time, it is very flexible, not the fixed entity that we sometimes think it is.
Time is really just connected to our state of mind. When we see Mind as it really is there no place for time. That’s because it is impossible for us to stand outside of the One Mind and measure time objectively. Although we know what it is we cannot say. This is the mystery of time.
If you want to learn more about the nature of time you may be interested in the follow blog: How did we get here, a different view of time.
Feel free to ask questions
Please
feel free to continue asking questions. I’m always glad to hear your
reactions and clarify my answers. Unlike the path of faith, on the path
of Self-Knowledge it is curiosity that destroys limitation and allows
you to abide in your natural freedom.
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Best Wishes,
Michael Gluckman
