It seems that rather than examining “the structure of timeâ€, (TSK Chapt. 6) we are seeing a reflection of “how we know timeâ€. Time is experienced differently in different states of mind. For example, when we are in pain, time moves very slowly. When we are having fun it seems to “fly byâ€. When we are depressed, we see no future. When in danger, we are very vigilant of the present. During post traumatic flashbacks, the past becomes the lived present.
While Rinpoche asserts that “the knowledge which does not apprehend hidden factors is not the function of a particular state of either ordinary or a nonstandard sort†( TSK pg 123), it does seem that our state of mind does influence our experience of time.
When we practice exercise 16 (TSK pg 108) and apprehend “all form as space and let all meaning, delineation and movement be seen as timeâ€, it feels like a change in mental and emotional state. Time and space are neither ordinary nor nonstandard, however, how we know them can change and this change feels like a change of mind and heart.
Hayward
