About Time

A reflection on time:

Time is not a force acting on the universe it is merely a measure of relative change. It is subjective and only exists in the relative. Cognized as unidirectional by entropic observation, within a thermodynamic system.

Conscious living beings emergent of chemical processes are entropic observers perceiving via electro-chemical apparatus, thus limited in observation to the procedural “flow of time.” Themselves emerging from the ocean of space-time, not separate from perceived space-time, perceiving as temporal aggregate the transient nature of constant change.

Terms

Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to compare the duration of events or the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change of quantities in material reality or in the conscious experience. Time is often referred to as a fourth dimension, along with three spatial dimensions (where a dimension is a mathematical measure in one direction).

In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called elements, or terms). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called the length of the sequence. Unlike a set, the same elements can appear multiple times at different positions in a sequence, and unlike a set, the order does matter. Formally, a sequence can be defined as a function from natural numbers (the positions of elements in the sequence) to the elements at each position. The notion of a sequence can be generalized to an indexed family, defined as a function from an arbitrary index set.

Basis

from the Bodhicharyavatara 

71. The basis of the act and fruit are not the same,
And thus a self lacks scope for its activity.
On this, both you and we are in accord
What point is there in our debating?

72. A cause coterminous with its result
Is something quite impossible to see.
And only in the context of a single mental stream
Can it be said that one who acts will later reap the fruit.

H.H. The Dalia Lama’s commentary from “Practicing Wisdom”

In other words, the karmic action is the cause, and the fruition of this is its consequence. However, from the point of view of time, the identity of the person who was responsible for the karmic act in the past and that of the person who undergoes the consequences are not one and the same. One exists at a particular time, while the other exists at another time.

To maintain their identity as one and the same in time would contradict even our ordinary conventions and experience. Their relationship as the same person is maintained because they share a single continuum of existence. Although the person undergoes moment-by-moment change, the basic continuum remains.

So, from the point of view of the continuum, we can maintain that the self is, in some sense, permanent or eternal without contradicting that the self is momentarily changing. From the point of view of its moment-by-moment change, the self is transient and impermanent. Thus, there is no contradiction in maintaining that in terms of its continuum, it is eternal, yet in terms of its momentary existence, it is impermanent. Of course, I am not suggesting that the self is permanent in the sense of unchanging!

Two-dimensional space depicted in three-dimensional spacetime. The past and future light cones are absolute, the "present" is a relative concept different for observers in relative motion. -credit Wiki Commons

Heart Of The Matter

Mechanical energy is the sum of potential energy and kinetic energy.

Potential energy is the energy held by an object because of its position relative to other objects, stresses within itself, its electric charge, or other factors.

The kinetic energy of an object is the form of energy that it possesses due to its motion

Motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time

Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future.

Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing.

Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within the universe, as opposed to that which is only imaginary, nonexistent or nonactual.

Energy is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of [thermodynamic] work and in the form of heat and light.

Thermodynamic work is one of the principal processes by which a thermodynamic system can interact with its surroundings and exchange energy.

A physical quantity, quantitative property (or simply quantity) is a property of a material or system that can be quantified by measurement.

A physical system is a collection of physical objects under study. A thermodynamic system is a body of matter and/or radiation separate from its surroundings that can be studied using the laws of thermodynamics.

Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation.

Radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium.

A physical object or physical body (or simply an object or body) is a collection of matter within a defined contiguous boundary in three-dimensional space.

Three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values (coordinates) are required to determine the position of a point.

A mathematical space is a set (sometimes known as a universe) endowed with a structure defining the relationships among the elements of the set.

A set is a collection of different things; these things are called elements or members of the set and are typically mathematical objects of any kind: numbers, symbols, points in space, lines, other geometrical shapes, variables, or even other sets.

A mathematical object is an abstract concept arising in mathematics, where an abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (real or concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods.

That signified and its signifier refer to the two main components of a sign (anything that communicates a meaning that is not the sign itself to the interpreter of the sign), where signified is what the sign represents or refers to, known as the “plane of content”, and signifier which is the “plane of expression” or the observable aspects of the sign itself.

A concept is an abstract idea that serves as a foundation for more concrete principles, thoughts, and beliefs.

A universe is a collection that contains all the entities one wishes to consider in a given situation.

Matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume.

Volume is a measure of regions (a non-empty, connected, and open set) in a topological space, three-dimensional space.

Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It  experimentally defined as a measure of the body’s inertia, meaning the resistance to acceleration (change of velocity) when a net force (the sum of all the forces acting on an object) is applied. The object’s mass also determines the strength of its gravitational attraction to other bodies.

An intrinsic property is a property of a specified subject that exists itself or within the subject.

  • A subject is a being that exercises agency, undergoes conscious experiences, and is situated in relation to other things that exist outside itself; thus, a subject is any individual, person, or observer.
  • An object is any of the things observed or experienced by a subject, which may even include other beings (thus, from their own points of view: other subjects).

H.H. the Dalai Lama’s commentary “Defending the Two Truths, Practicing Wisdom” 

By meditating on the sphere wherein all dualistic elaborations have been pacified, we accumulate wisdom. And we accumulate merit by deepening our conviction in the validity of the casual principles within the context of conventional truth.

Categories such as “subject and object,” “perception and object,” “one and many,” “self and others,” and of course, the “existence of all phenomena” are dependent upon worldly conventions. They are thus relative.

Bodhicharyavatara: 

[108] Analysis and what is to be analyzed
Are linked together, mutually dependent.
It is on the basis of conventional consensus
That all examination is expressed.

[110] If phenomena are truly analyzed,
No basis for analysis remains.
Deprived of further object, it subsides.
That indeed is said to be nirvana.

When the object of an inquiry is subjected to critical analysis, the subject too is revealed to be devoid of any intrinsic reality or intrinsic origination. This absence is described as nirvana, the state beyond sorrow (defined in terms of the cessation of karma and afflictions). So while a meditator is directly experiencing the emptiness of intrinsic existence of all phenomena, there is no basis for grasping onto the intrinsic existence of anything else.

For the meditator in this state, there is no awareness of subject and object. A subject-object distinction could be made, but since the meditator’s mind is totally fused with the absence of inherent existence, there is no need to analyze the emptiness of the analyzing mind itself.

I/O

Proposal of 

First Principle: Establishing that…

One can never physically perceive the fundamental components of nature. 

Ultimately, all one can ever “know” of them subjectively is their mathematical attributes, thus objects of math. 

Mathematically all numbers, rational or irrational, are ultimately  component the base unit, thus all real numbers are composite of 1.

Fractionally there is still the base unit of 1.

Computationally 1 is denoted as  the “on” state of a transistor.

The absence of 1 is known conceptually as 0 and computationally as the “off” state of a transistor. 

Thus ultimately, perceived reality is fundamentally either composite of 1 or 0, or what is the same, phenomena is ultimately binary.

Subsequent

If all one can know of reality is numeric,
Further,
If one does not perceive numbers in themself, but a subsequent manifest realty,
It follows one experiences life as simulated reality manifest mind, or it can be said in simulation.

Rhetoric:

“The origin of all phenomena lies beyond the reach of understanding.” –Shantideva, Bodhicharyavatara” 

“So, as long as a thing is divisible-as long as we can break it into composite parts we can establish its nature as dependent upon its parts. If, on the other hand, a thing were to exist intrinsically as a substantial reality, then that thing would not be dependent upon its parts; it would instead exist as an indivisible and completely discrete entity.”  – H.H. The Dalia Lama  on being mindful of the emptiness of all phenomena from “Practicing Wisdom.”

Spirals of CERN

Track: “Spirals ” by Vangelis.
“How could anyone accept
That what is partless could be said to meet?
And you must show me, if you ever saw,
Contact taking place between two partless things.”

Bodhicharyavatara [95]

Journey to a Star

“The Voyager 2 space probe launched on August 20, 1977, as a part of NASA’s Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and enabled further encounters with the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2 has been sending scientific data to Earth for over 47 years, making it the oldest active space probe. Launched 16 days before its twin Voyager 1, the primary mission of the spacecraft was to study the outer planets and its extended mission is to study interstellar space beyond the Sun’s heliosphere.”
Track: “Journey to a Star” David Visan off of “Buddha Bar presents Chill Out in Paris.”