Some Buddhist notions on time and on the sense of time
Some Buddhist notions on time and on the sense of time
Gergana Ruseva
Fourth International Scientific Conference "The Silk Road” June 01-02, 2017, Sofia, Bulgaria Abstract The principle of causality or of dependent origination (Skt. pratityasamutpada, Pali paticcasamuppada) is central in philosophy of Buddhism. The idea that everithing is impermanent, conditioned, that there is nothing permanent or eternal, brings to mind different thoughts about time. In the present article some of the Buddhist ideas concerning time and the sense of time are considered. Psychologically, there are intimate relationships between the sense of time, the structure of human thought, the sense of body, and the sense of self - the loss of the sense of body and time results in collapse of the sense of self. And the collapse of the sense of self is central in Buddhism.
Keywords: sense of time, time, doctrine of momentariness, flow, present moment, Buddhism, psychology of Buddhism
When we investigate the nature of time and the sense of time we try to isolate the sense of time from all other senses and feelings, from thoughts, from the sense of body and from the sense of the self. In fact, there are intimate relationships between the sense of time, the structure of human thought and sensations, the sense of body, and the sense of self (Ataria, Neria, 2013, Zhou, Poppel, Bao, 2014). When we speak about the sense of time in Buddhism we should have in mind that some of the teachings about time are based on personal experience during meditation or some other practices leading to altered states of consciousness (ASC)1 and that these teachings about time and sense of time are internally connected with the sense of causality, of samsara, of the dharmas, of body, and of self.
1 ASC can occur spontaneously, or can be achieved through meditation, hypnosis, psychedelic drugs, can result from traumatic experiences such as isolation, hunger, and near-death experience, and can cause varying levels of alertness, reduced concentration, sharpened senses, generation of unity among senses, hallucinations, etc. See Ataria, Neria, 2013.
We know that during ASC human thought can change dramatically, people can receive completely new type of knowledge, and the world perception, including time perception, can be reshaped (see Ataria, Neria, 2013). Time may lose its “pace”, duration, direction, and its fundamental link to causality system. The ability to estimate time can disappear and, in certain cases a sense of lack of time and a sense of existence outside time can develop.2 “Evidence suggests that the loss of the sense of body and the loss of the sense of time are in fact connected; that is, they collapse together. This breakdown in turn results in collapse of the sense of self.” (Ataria, Neria, 2013: 159). And the collapse of the sense of self is central in Buddhism.
One important thing here is that practice of meditation can vary according to the concepts of the concrete Buddhist teaching and that different practices cause different states of consciousness with different sense of time. So there is no single teaching about time, but many teachings, connected with a sense of time in accordance with the sense of samsara, dharmas, causality or dependent origination, and with the sense of self or no-self, anatta. For example, the teaching of momentariness is based not on the idea that the time is discrete, but on the idea that there are no real entities that last more than a moment. So it is not a teaching of time but of complete change (or more precisely shift) in every moment -the world (and all its components) is absolutely new in the next moment and the illusion that it is the same and that the things have some time stretch is conditioned by dependent origination.
We also will pay some attention to the question do Buddhists have a special sense of time which is reflexed in their teachings, or do they have the same old sense of time but conceptualize it in a different manner. Is it possible the structure of human thought to be like a matrix forming or at least affecting the sense of time? Is it possible, for example, the doctrine of the lack of eternal, stretched in time entity to bring about the sense of discrete time?
In the first part of this article we will consider the experience of time according to Buddhism - the experience is at the heart of various concepts of the world, or at least can color the concepts, in particular, the concepts of time. Then we will see how this experience
2 See Ataria, Neria, 2013, and their bibliography on the subject.
is mirrored in language - we will consider words signifying “time”, paying special attention to the word Skt. ksana, Pali khana. At last we will look at different Buddhist schools concerned with time and experience of time, and at the doctrine of momentariness and the experience of momentariness.
We derive time from events. Linearity and imperativity of time
Now we will focus on the deep laid notion of linearity and imperativity of time, on the way out of this absolute time, on living in the present moment and on the so called “flow”.
The Buddha insisted that the beginning of the universe is inconceivable, yet that it is possible to speak about moments of evolution and dissolution in terms of eons - periods of immense duration, that can be illustrated by similes.3 From these similes we can see that for the Buddha (long) time duration is determined by events. In Samyutta Nikaya is said:
Savatthiyam. Atha kho annataro bhikkhu yena bhagava tenupasankami. Upasankamitva bhagavantam abhivadetva ekamantam nisidi. Ekamantam nisinno kho so bhikkhu bhagavantam etadavoca: "kivadigho nu kho bhante, kappo" ti? Digho kho bhikkhu, kappo. So na sukaro sankhatum ettakani vassani iti va, ettakani vassasatani iti va, ettakani vassasahassani iti va, ettakani vassasatasahassani iti va'ti. Sakka pana bhante, upamam katunti? Sakka bhikkhu'ti bhagava avoca. mahaselo pabbato yojanam ayamena, yojanam vittharena, yojanam ubbedhena, acchiddo asusiro ekaghano, tamenam puriso vassasatassa vassasatassa accayena kasikena vatthena sakim sakim parimajjeyya, khippataram kho so bhikkhu mahaselo pabbato imina upakkamena parikkhayam pariyadanam gaccheyya, na tveva kappo. Evam digho kho bhikkhu, kappo. Evam dighanam kho bhikkhu, kappanam neko kappo samsito nekam kappasatam samsitam, nekam kappasahassam samsitam, nekam kappasatasahassam samsitam. Tam kissa hetu? Anamataggoyam bhikkhu, samsaro pubbakoti na pannayati avijjanivarananam sattanam tanha samyojananam sandhavatam samsaratam.
3 Kalupahana, 1974.
Yavancidam bhikkhave, alameva sabbasankharesu nibbinditum, alam virajjitum, alam vimuccitunti. (3.1.5. Pabbatasuttam, Samyuttanikayo, 268)4
At Savatthi. Then a certain bhikkhu approached the Blessed One, paid homage to him, sat down to one side, and said to him: "Venerable sir, how long is an aeon?" "An aeon is long, bhikkhu. It is not easy to count it and say it is so many years, or so many hundreds of years, or so many thousands of years, or so many hundreds of thousands of years." "Then is it possible to give a simile, venerable sir?" "It is possible, bhikkhu," the Blessed One said. "Suppose, bhikkhu, there was a great stone mountain a yojana5 long, a yojana wide, and a yojana high, without holes or crevices, one solid mass of rock. At the end of every hundred years a man would stroke it once with a piece of silk cloth. That great stone mountain might by this effort be worn away and eliminated but the aeon would still not have come to an end. So long is an aeon, bhikkhu. And of aeons of such length, we have wandered through so many aeons, so many hundreds of aeons, so many thousands of aeons, so many hundreds of thousands of aeons. For what reason? Because, bhikkhu, this samsara is without discoverable beginning... It is enough to be liberated from them."6
From this passage emphasizing the immensity of time one can also conclude that according
to the Buddha we derive time from events, we use events to measure time.7
We often assume that abstract, uniform, and objective time is a universal physical entity. But this kind of evenly flowing time was introduced to us only recently together with the mechanical clock. Before the introduction of mechanical clock, events were used to measure time and our natural way of time-keeping depends on the perception, estimation and coordination of events. Our experience and understanding of time emerges from our perception of events.8 Even the principle of operation of mechanical clock is based on
4 GRETIL
5 A measure of distance, sometimes regarded as equal to 4 or 5, sometimes to 9, and sometimes to 2,5 English miles.
6 Here is given the Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of Samyutta Nikaya, 2000: 654.
7 See Forman, 2015. Buddhism is essentially a practical school which goal is to overcome suffering (Skt. duhkha, Pali dukkha). Early Buddhism is not a system of metaphysics so we don't expect to find there abstract notions concerning time. See Koller, 1974.
8 See Forman, 2015.
events: a uniform artificial event is generated and repeated, while keeping an accumulative count. With the mechanical clock a new sort of uniform, objective, abstract time, independent of events, emerged (Forman, 2015). Of course it is obvious that the experience of this linear absolute time is not new at all. The imperative pace of time is a real factor, for example, for ancient agricultural societies. The Buddhists have some kind of psychological approach to this imperative, linear, absolute time - and to the liberation from it. The basic idea of Buddhist teachings is to eliminate suffering duhkha or dukkha9 (especially the “third-level” suffering). To do this one has to see the true nature of the self - one has to realize that the reason for this suffering is the instinctive sense of unchanging, eternal, separate self. This self requires a particular linear temporal order in which to operate. So time is objectified and is felt like an external compelling force.10
Our experience then appears to be confined to the realm of linear time, where events unfold in a predictable sequence, moving forward from the past, to the present, and in to the future. This is what is called conditioned existence and we act as if this linear time is absolute.11
Let us for a while leave aside Buddhism and its psychological approach towards time. Is it possible time to have a more peculiar structure? We often say “the thread of time”. Can it be “the twisted thread of time”, or can this thread of time possess an additional structure? Can it be like having primary, secondary and tertiary structure DNA molecule? We can speak about the DNA structure because it is extended in space, but time is not extended in space. And since the space is defined by the objects, extended in it, time is defined by the events - the events are extended in time, i.e. time may have a more peculiar structure, relative to the motion and phenomena, and “thread” gives the sequence
9 According to Ronald Purser (2014), there are three kinds or levels of suffering in Buddhism: the physical and mental pain; the suffering of change (any phenomenon or being that arises is subject to change and will also pass away); and suffering of conditioned existence - the basis of the other two levels of suffering. It is the deepest level existential suffering based on the premise that everything is subject to the laws of karman or karma and dependent origination and a vague feeling that self may be empty and devoid of separate identity. “This level of suffering is usually repressed, or covered up, through incessant goal-directed activities that are attempts to make the self feel more secure, grounded and real. The suffering of conditioning, or “third-level” suffering, requires the deepest level of investigation of temporality...” Purser, 2014: 1.
of events and cause-and-effect relationship. Moreover, subjective time is also connected with states of consciousness, structure of thought, and perception, i.e. the secondary and tertiary structures can arise from quite subjective perspective.
For the way out of the imperativity of time Dogen (an eminent 13th century Japanese Zen master, founder of Soto school) gives another idea: we are not in time, but we are time. According to Dogen (as far as I can understand his teachings) the one is not in time, he/she is not an observer of the flow of time - he/she is the very flow of time. One is not in the flow looking for a shore - one with all his/her experiences, feelings and thoughts is this very flow, and this flow is time.12
In Anguttara Nikaya, IV.137. is said: “There is no moment, no inkling, no particle of time that the river stops flowing.”13
According to the Pali scriptures one has to realize enlightenment in the immediate present.14
Do not chase after the past; do not seek for the future.
The past is already no more; the future is not yet.
And see the elements of present in every place, without attachment,
Without moving - yet clearly see and strive in the present.
Do earnestly the task for today; who knows the nearness of death on the morrow? Truly who can say he will not meet the great army of death?
Such a man of realization, earnestly striving day and night without indolence,
He, surely, is the sage of time, the peaceful one, the steady one.
(Majjhima Nikaya, 131-134)15
As Sharf (2013) pointed out, early Zen masters recommended intense immersion in the flow of here-and-now to reach a nonconceptual and nondiscursive awareness, leading to
12 For more detail see Abe, 1992: 77-105; Stambaugh, 1990: 24-71; Purser, 2014; Miyamoto, 1959. Here I would like to mention also the so called “flow” experience in sport psychology. 13 Citation is according to Kalupahana, 1974: 184. 14 See Miyamoto, 1959. 15 Here I cite the translation given in Miyamoto, 1959: 122.
a state of inner stillness. But Zen reformers Dahui and later Hakuin in Japan thought that these methods lead to an imbalanced state of “meditation sickness”, in which the meditator is attached to a dull, peaceful, and blissful stillness and has no concern for the suffering of the world.16
Cyclic conception of existence
Cyclic events such as the day-night cycle, the cycle of the sun, the cycle of the moon's phases are at the basis of calendars since ancient times. The cyclic conception of existence according to Buddhism is the idea that until one is liberated he/she is bound to be born, live and die again and again. So there is a cyclic nature of reality, but this does not mean that the time is cyclic. Only after a very long period a Bodhisattva can become an enlighten person - a Buddha. “Despite the cyclic nature of the Bodhisattva's existences and of the intervening world ages, the vast expanse of time unfolding between the initial aspiration and the final attainment is conceived of in linear terms. While the wheel traveling over the road revolves, the road itself does not.”17
In Majjhima Nikaya, 115, Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta: Sutta 38, i, 262-264, 19 is said:
Sadhu bhikkhave. Iti kho bhikkhave tumhe pi evam vadetha aham-pi evam vadami: [Iti] imasmim sati idam hoti, imass' uppada idam uppajjati...18 (Majjhima Nikaya, Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta: Sutta 38, i, 263-264)
Good, bhikkhus. So you say thus, and I also say thus: 'When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises.'19 16 Purser, 2014. Purser (2014) made also some very interesting remarks on the contemporary practices of mindfulness meditation and especially to the contemporary starving for the present moment. On the present moment see Montemayor, Wittmann, 2014.
17 Rospatt, 2004. 18 GRETIL. 19 Here is given the Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of Majjhima Nikaya, 1995: 355-356.
Let us consider the causal principle presented here by the Buddha. Because of the locative absolute construction in the sentence imasmim sati idam hoti it can be translated also as a conditional clause “If this exists, that comes to be”20. And this means that according to the Buddha events cannot be predicted and are not determined with certainty.21 Omniscience and especially knowledge of the future is not claimed by the Buddha -according to causal principal could be made only predictions. And one can perceive only causality (Skt. pratityasamutpada, Palipaticcasamuppada):
Vuttam kho pan' etam Bhagavata: Yo paticcasamuppadam passati so dhammam passati. yo dhammam passati so paticcasamuppadam passatiti.
Now this has been said by the Blessed One: "One who sees dependent origination sees the Dhamma; one who sees the Dhamma sees dependent origination." (Majjhima Nikaya, Mahahatthipadopamasuttam Sutta: Sutta 28, i, 284: 190-191)
Here one should have in mind that in Yogasutra 3.16. of Patanjali's the knowledge of the parinamatraya (the three changes) means also knowledge of the past and knowledge of the future.22 23
Sanskrit and Pali words signifying “time”
Let us now refer to the Sanskrit and Pali words signifying “time”. There are: samaya, kala, ksana (khana) and adhvan (addhan). Samaya means “coming together”, “meeting”, “contract”, “agreement”, “opportunity”, “appointed time” or “proper time”. Kala means time in general, as in kala-vada “time-doctrine”. Kala signifies also appointed or suitable time, meal-time or the time of death. In Sanskrit death is expressed kala krta (Pali kala-kata), meaning literally, "whose time is completed."24 Sanskrit ksana (Pali
20 See also Kalupahana, 1974.
21 According to Sarvastivada ("the theory of all exists", originated between 3rd century BC and around the turn of the Christian era), one of the most influential early school of Buddhism, flourishing throughout Northwest India, Northern India, and Central Asia, all dharmas exist in the past, present and future. From this contemporal existence of past, present and future it is implicated that the consequence preexists in the cause and that what will be is completely determined from what is and from what was, so temporality becomes just an illusion.
22 See Yogasutra, 3.16. of Patanjali's (parindmatrayasamyamddafitdndgatajnanam.) and the commentary of Vyasa. See also Ruseva, 2015.
23 According to Miyamoto, 1959.
24 As a compound of the bahuvrhi type.
khaija) can be “a moment”, “an opportunity”, or the moment of fulfillment of a purpose. At last, adhvan refers to a stretch or length of space or time, a road or journey in space and time (Miyamoto, 1959). In oldest Buddhist literature the word samaya, according to Miyamoto (1959), is the most frequent - almost all sutras begin with the words:
Evam maya srutam: ekasmin samaye Bhagavan Rajaghe viharati sma...
Thus have I heard: at one time the Blessed One was staying at Rajagha..2
The word ksana means “a moment”, “a very brief unit of time (for example, 1/75th second)”, in some contexts can mean the momentary entity itself (Rospatt, 1995: 94-110). In accord with its etymology from aksan "eye", ksana refers to the winking of the eye, and more precisely, to the time taken by the winking. In the Theravada canon khana (=ksana) often denotes "opportunity," "auspicious moment".25 26
In the Sarvastivada tradition, however, the word ksana is used as the smallest unit of time, according to the Abhidharmic texts, as "time's furthest extreme" (kalaparyanta) - the smallest indivisible unit of time27. The division of time into ksanas is considered in the same manner as the division of matter into atoms and of speech into syllables - neither of which is infinitely divisible. This atomistic conception of time probably has been taken for granted (Rospatt, 1995: 96-98).
In Madhyamaka (RA 1.69-70), however, the conception of the ksana as the smallest unit of time is refuted: yathanto 'sti ksanasyaivam adimadhyamca kalpyatam/ tryatmakatvat ksanasyaivam na lokasya ksanam sthitih //69// adimadhyavasanani cintyani ksanavatpunah. (ka 69- 70)
25 The citation is according to Miyamoto, 1959: 118. “In these introductory phrases, the four conditions-time, place, the master and his audience - are posited. The coming together of these four necessarily indicates an auspicious event which happens once for all in the long eons of sacred history.” (Miyamoto, 1959: 118). The most important and auspicious time is the moment of Buddha's enlightenment.
26 Rospatt, 1995: 94-95.
27 Rospatt, 1995: 96-98. “bhettum asakyah; ksano bhavet". Pramananavarttikavrtti, Rospatt, 1995: 96.
As the moment has an end, also its beginning and middle have to be assumed. Since the moment is thus endowed with these three sections, the duration of the world is not a moment. Beginning, middle and end [of the moment] should be considered [to have], in their turn, [beginning, middle and end,] just as the moment (which leads to an infinite regress).28
On the basis of the Buddhist ideas that there is nothing more transient than mental events and that each event is a distinct mental entity, ksana - the shortest conceivable incident, became to represent the duration of mental entities.29
In order to account for the fact that the word ksana may refer both to an instant of time and to the entity existing during this instant, E. Steinkellner renders Tibetan variant of ksana by "phase."30
Time and of sense of time according to some of the different schools of Buddhism
Early Buddhism considered both time and causation as parts of our experience, not as mere inferences based primarily on the succession of momentary ideas. Somehow it follows the middle path: absolute abstract time is an extreme and unnecessary hypothesis and time is not an illusion of the intellect.31
The Buddha said in Diggha Nikaya III.134 (or Samyutta Nikaya II: 84-97):
“This physical body made up of the four primary existents is seen to exist for one, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, hundred years. That which is called the mind, thought or consciousness arises as one thing and ceases as another whether by night or by day.”32
28 The citation is according to Roaspatt, 1995: 98, note 217.
29 Rospatt, 1995: 102.
30 Ibid., 109, note 246.
31 Kalupahana, 1974.
32 Citation is according to Kalupahana, 1974: 184.
This is a description of the two types of experience: the experience of things that endure for some time, and the experience of momentary things.33 Mental entities are conceived as being more transient than the physical objects. Gradually, mental entities are thought to last less and less, i.e. at last they are conceived to be momentary.34
Time is not an object of the five senses, so it could be viewed as an illusion of the intellect. But when speaking about the idea of Sarvastivada that past and future exist in the present (in the form of dharmas) and that time is not real but mere illusion of the intellect, we can consider the following linguistic contra-argument of the Buddha:35
Savatthi. Tatra voca. Tayo me bhikkhave niruttipatha adhivacanapatha pannattipatha asamkinna asamkinnapubba na samkiyanti na samkiyissanti appatikuttha samanehi brahmanehi vinnuhi. Katame tayo. Yam hi bhikkhave rupam atitam niruddham viparinatam. ahositi tassa sankha. ahositi tassa samanna. ahositi tassa pannatti. Na tassa sankha atthiti na tassa sankha bhavissatiti. Ya vedana atita niruddha viparinata. ahositi tassa sankha. ahositi tassa samanna. ahositi tassa pannatti. Na tassa sankha atthiti. na tassa sankha bhavissatiti. Ya sanna. Ye sankhara atita niruddha viparinata. ahesunti tesam sankha. ahesunti tesam samanna. ahesunti tesam pannatti. Na tesam sankha atthiti. na tesam sankha bhavissatiti. Yam vinnanam atitam niruddham viparinatam. ahositi tassa sankha. ahositi tassa samanna. ahositi tassa pannatti. Na tassa sankha atthiti. na tassa sankha bhavissatiti. Yam bhikkhave rupam ajatam apatubhutam. bhavissatiti tassa sankha. bhavissatiti tassa samanna. bhavissatiti tassa pannatti. Na tassa sankha atthiti. na tassa sankha ahositi. Ya vedana ajata apatubhuta. bhavissatiti tassa sankha. bhavissatiti tassa samanna. bhavissatiti tassa pannatti. Na tassa sankha atthiti. na tassa sankha ahositi. Ya sanna. pe. Ye sankhara ajata apatubhuta. bhavissantiti tesam sankha. bhavissantiti1 tesam samanna. bhavissantiti tesam pannatti. Na tesam sankha atthiti. na tesam sankha ahesun ti. Yam vinnanam ajatam apatubhutam. bhavissatiti tassa sankha. bhavissatiti tassa samanna. bhavissatiti tassa pannatti.
33 See Kalupahana, 1974, Rospatt, 1995: 113-121.
34 See Rospatt, 1995:113-121.
35 See also Kalupahana, 1974.
Na tassa sankha atthiti. na tassa sankha ahositi. Yam bhikkhave rupam jatam patubhutam atthiti tassa sankha. atthiti tassa samanna. atthiti tassa pannatti. Na tassa sankha ahositi. na tassa sankha bhavissatiti. Ya vedana jata patubhuta. atthiti tassa sankha. atthiti tassa samanna. atthiti tassa pannatti. Na tassa sankha ahositi. na tassa sankha bhavissatiti. Ya sanna. Ye sankhara jata patubhuta atthiti tesam sankha. atthiti tesam samanna. atthiti tesam pannatti. na tesam sankha ahesun ti. na tesam sankha bhavissantiti. Yam vinnanam jatam patubhutam. atthiti tassa sankha. atthiti tassa samanna. atthiti tassa pannatti. na tassa sankha ahositi. na tassa sankha bhavissatiti. Ime kho bhikkhave tayo niruttipatha adhivacanapatha pannattipatha asamkinna asamkinnapubba na samkiyant na samkiyissanti appatikuttha samanehi brahmanehi vinnuhi.36 (SN 3,22(1).62 (10) Niruttipatha)
62 (10) Pathways of Language
At Savatthi. "Bhikkhus, there are these three pathways of language, pathways of designation, pathways of description, that are unmixed, that were never mixed, that are not being mixed, that will not be mixed, that are not rejected by wise ascetics and brahmins. What three? "Whatever form, bhikkhus, has passed, ceased, changed: the term, label, and description 'was' applies to it, not the term 'is' or the term 'will be.' "Whatever feeling. Whatever perception.Whatever volitional formations... Whatever consciousness has passed, ceased, changed: the term, label, and description 'was' applies to it, not the term 'is' or the term 'will be.' "Whatever form, bhikkhus, has not been born, has not become manifest: the term, label, and description 'will be' applies to it, not the term 'is' or the term 'was.' "Whatever feeling. Whatever perception. Whatever volitional formations. Whatever consciousness has not been born has not become manifest: the term, label, and description 'will be' applies to it, not the term 'is' or the term 'was.' "Whatever form, bhikkhus, has been born, has become manifest: the term, label, and description 'is' applies to it, not the term 'was' or the term 'will be.' "Whatever feeling. Whatever perception.Whatever volitional formations.Whatever consciousness has been born, has become manifest: the term, label, and description
36 GRETIL.
'is' applies to it, not the term 'was' or the term 'will be.' "These, bhikkhus, are the three pathways of language, pathways of designation, pathways of description, that are unmixed, that were never mixed, that are not being mixed, that will not be mixed, that are not rejected by wise ascetics and brahmins.37 (Samyutta Nikaya III. 22. 62 (10) Khandhasamyutta: 905)
In order to eliminate the conception of an eternal self, Buddha developed analytical method of reducing things to their components - the human personality was analyzed either into five aggregates (Skt skandha, Pali khandha), either into six elements (dhatu), which were the contents of experience, not just of logical analysis. However, the analytical approach reached the logical conclusion, and together with the emergence of a theory of atoms (paramanu), came out the theory of moments (Skt. ksana, Pali khana) and temporal atomicity.38 There are many difficulties connected with analysis of time in atomic units. The most difficult problem of this theory of moments is connected with the experienced continuity of temporal events: a moment is durationless, comparable to the dimensionless point of space, and so past, present, and future moments are completely distinct from each other. They are discrete and have no connection between each other. This problem is solved differently in different schools of Buddhism.
According to the Sarvastivada there is unchangeable substance or “own-nature” (dravya, svabhava), underlying the succession of momentary events. So, everything (dharma) has two aspects: temporal (kalika, ksanika) characteristic (laksana) and eternal or timeless substance (dravya). So Sarvastivadins admit that everything past, present, and future exist, and are independently real.39 The Buddhist school Sautrantika rejected Sarvastivada idea of svabhava as being the same as the idea of eternal self (atman). But this rejection compelled them to think of the world as series of fleeting moments.40
37 Here is given the Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of Samyutta Nikaya, 2000: 905. It differs from Kalupahana's translation (1974: 184). 38 See Kalupahana, 1974. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid.
In the Mulamadhyamakakarika (“Verses on the Middle”), Nagarjuna, the most representative thinker of early Mahayana Buddhism, devotes one chapter to the examination of time.41 Nagarjuna wrote in the nineteenth chapter of his Criticism on Time (Kalapariksa) as follows:
1. If because of the past
There are future and present, Then future and present Must be in the past.
2. If within the past There were neither future nor present Then future and present- How are they caused by the past?
3. Independent of the past There is no future Nor any present, Therefore these two periods are not.
4. Because such is the case, We know that the two other periods And above, between, below, unity, difference-- All such states as these have no existence.
5. Time standing still cannot be had, And time cannot be had. If time cannot be had How can one teach time's qualities?
6. Because of things there is time, of bija or seed, differentiate the present from Apart from things how can time be? Even things do not exist, How much less can time exist?42
41 See Miyamoto, 1959, Kalupahana, 1974.
42 Translation is according to Miyamoto, 1959: 120-121. Nagarjuna pointed out that two things cannot be related unless they are coexistent. Nonenduring and nonstatic time cannot be measured, and an enduring and static time does not exist. If time exists depending on existential structure, then it cannot be obtained without such structure and so, according to him, time does not exist.43
So according to Kalupahana (1974: 188): “Early Buddhism presented an empiricist and relativistic conception of time; the Abhidharma scholasticism produced an absolutistic conception, and Madhyamikas denied the reality of time. The doctrine of momentariness
From the denial of a permanent self comes the idea that mind is a flow of mental events which have to be entities of their own - entities that also have to be momentary. Probably, the momentariness of material entities was logically deduced from the momentariness of mental entities, and hence, all forms of conditioned entities are momentary.44
Buddhist idea is not to atomize time into moments, but to atomize phenomena temporally as a succession of discrete momentary entities.45 All phenomena, or all conditioned entities (samskrta, samskara) stop to exist as soon as they have originated and give rise to new entities of almost the same nature - santana - a flow of causally connected momentary entities of the same kind.46 These entities succeed so fast one after the other that one cannot see them by ordinary perception - so one conceives that things are temporally extended. So, although the world is at every moment distinct from the world in the previous or next moment, it is linked to the past and future by the law of causality.47
Spiritual experience connected with the doctrine of momentariness 43 See Kalupahana, 1974. 44 Rospatt, 1995: 11-12, 196-218. 45 Ibid. 46 Ibid. 47 Ibid. The theory of momentariness cannot be traced back to the beginnings of Buddhism and is a post-canonical and “sectarian” development. See Rospatt, 1959: 5, note 4.
According to Rospatt (1995: 11-12), the doctrine of momentariness is formed on the basis of a radical experience of transitoriness of existence, but such experiences are legitimated and explained by doctrinal considerations. One way of gaining experience of the impermanence of existence is the observation of death with the awareness that the dead body is one's own.48 Another way is to treat impermanence as a constant fluctuation and to focus on the change of existence, without paying such strong attention to the decay and death, but to the cyclic notion of existence, samsara, karman, and spiritual development.49 The question is still open “whether the new metaphysical assumption of momentariness will have prompted a spiritual experience of a new quality, or whether only the conceptualization of the experience, and not its nature, changed”.50 What means to perceive discrete time? May be to feel the gaps between two infinitesimally close in time perceptions - we perceive and during the time of the processing of the signals, there is just a moment of loosening the signals from outside. But is it so? Is our perception discrete and what is the length of these intervals of signal interruption? Is our brain's procession of information discrete procession? And are afterwards the different discrete perceptions sewed into continuous impression?
The processes of perception and procession of information are based on electromagnetic impulses, and in this sense are discrete, but are bound to chemical reactions that are not necessarily discrete. And all this discussion of discreteness or continuity of time is based on the proposition of linear time.
The Buddhist approach is different: the world is discrete not only in space, but also in time and in every next moment it is quite new, causally connected with the previous one. As with blinking of an eye - in the moment you open your eyes the world is quite new. Cinematograph is the ideal example - however, we should keep in mind that usually tape mirrors successive (continuous) events, photographed at defined very small intervals, and the perception of the film is to restore these primordial (continuous) events. So the question
48 See Rospatt, 2004; Rospatt, 1995: 196-218. 49 Ibid. 50 Rospatt, 1995: 209, note 445.
about discreteness or continuity of time, or of the world, is intrinsically connected not only with events, but also with our perception of these events.51 Is this momentariness connected with the world itself - and is there something like “the world itself” far beyond the one who perceives it?
Abe, 1992: Abe, M. A Study of Dogen: His Philosophy and Religion. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992.
Ataria, Neria, 2013: Ataria, Y., Neria, Y. Consciousness-Body-Time: How Do People Think Lacking Their Body? Human Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2013, pp. 159-178.
Bareau, 1957: Bareau, A. The notion of time in early Buddhism. Philosophy East and West, Vol. 7, No. 4, 1957, pp. 353-364.
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Kalupahana, 1974: Kalupahana, D. The Buddhist Conception of Time and Temporality. Philosophy East and West, 24, N 2, 1974, pp. 181-191. King, 1968: King, W. Time Transcendence-Acceptance in Zen Buddhism . Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 36, No. 3, 1968, pp. 217-228. Koller, 1974: Koller, J. On Buddhist views of devouring time. Philosophy East and West 24, no. 2, 1974, pp.201-208. Majjhima Nikaya: The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha. A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya. Translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi. Buddhist Publication Society, Sri Lanka. 1995. 51 On different ideas about continuous or discrete time see Montemayor, 2012. Miyamoto, 1959: Miyamoto, Sh. Time and Eternity in Buddhism. Journal of Bible and Religion, Vol. 27, No. 2, 1959, pp. 118-126. Montemayor, 2012: Montemayor, C. Continuous and Discrete Time: Scientific Possibilities. KronoScope 12:1 (2012), pp. 52-72. Montemayor, Wittmann, 2014: Montemayor, C., Wittmann, M. The Varieties of Presence: Hierarchical Levels of Temporal Integration. Timing & Time Perception 2 (2014), pp. 325-338.
Rospatt, 1995: Rospatt, A. The Buddhist Doctrine of Momentariness. A Survey of the Origins and Early Phase of this Doctrine up to Vasubandhu . Franz Steiner, Verlag. Stuttgart. 1995.
Rospatt, 2004: Rospatt, A. Impermanence and Time. The Contemplation of Impermanence (anityata) in the Yogacara Tradition of Maitreya and Asanga. In: Walter Schweidler, ed.: Zeit: Anfang und Ende. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 2004, pp.75-91.
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Samyutta Nikaya: The Connected Discourses of the Buddha. A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Wisdom Publications. Somerville. 2000.
Sharf 2013: Sharf, R. Mindfulness or mindlessness: traditional and modern Buddhist critiques of “bare awareness”. Video lecture Advanced Studies Institute lectures on Mindfulness in a Cultural Context, McGill University: https://blogs.mcgill.ca/tcpsych/tag/robert-hsharf/
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