Magazine: Whole Earth Review
Issue: Summer 1995
Title: Dynamics of Time and Space

Metaphysics is always hard. Sometimes itUs hard because metaphysicians 
are in love with their own words. Other times itUs hard because its ideas 
donUt fit well into ordinary language.

Dynamics of Time and Space is difficult for the second reason. Tibetan 
lama Tarthang Tulku presents his vision not as a series of rarefied 
intellectual concepts, but as a means of opening up the cracks in our 
perceptions. Time and space are revealed not as absolutes, but as 
curtains behind which we can peer.

Despite its lucidity, this book is challenging. At times I felt lost in 
it. At other moments, even if I wasnUt sure IUd grasped the authorUs 
meaning, I felt small bursts of illumination, as if something in his mind 
had spoken to something deep and wise in mine. --Richard Smoley

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Sitting quietly, let the mind involve itself in the stories that flow 
through consciousness. Notice the dynamic that powers each story: the 
concerns and desires, worries and distractions. As you become more 
familiar with these patterns, look for second-level stories that support 
the stories on the surface; for instance, stories about who you are and 
what you stand for, or stories that make sense of longstanding patterns 
or conditions. Notice which stories refer more to the past and which to 
the future. How does the TobjectiveU time that measures out events and 
sequences figure in the stories you tell? Is it a minor character? Does 
it have a role to play at all? . . .

As you become familiar with the stories you typically tell, you will 
notice how many of them express a characteristic negativity. There are 
stories that explain inaction or justify distraction, that feed daydreams 
of escape, excuse failures, and calm fears. There are other stories that 
fuel anxiety and intensify concern. Pay close attention to the patterns 
of the stories that you typically tell, looking for those that 
consistently repeat themselves. Can you touch the energy bound up in 
those stories? Can you release it? 
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There seems to be no way to identify the present moment without pointing 
to its content. Yet in taking this stand, we are actually turning away 
from the TpresentnessU of the moment. In the moment that we specify the 
present, we turn it into the past.

Our inquiry thus leads to a surprising result. Starting from our chosen 
point of reference at the beginning of time, we stretch ourselves out 
along the extending length of time, seeking the moment that is ours: the 
present moment There and now.U But whenever we reach out to identify and 
investigate a candidate, all that we find is more recorded moments of 
past time -- one after another, stretching out farther than we can ever 
extend our reach.

We can frame the conclusion of this analysis as follows: If time consists 
of moments that arise in succession, each specified by the lineage of 
moments that have preceded it, each recorded in turn, then all of time is 
past time. Time in the dynamic of its arising is unavailable -- gone from 
the outset.