Author: Gibran

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!