I’ve really enjoyed TSK exercise 16, especially the part where it is suggested that we can explore experiencing in terms of: i) the objects being space, ii) the ‘subject’ being knowledge (or knowing), and iii) the relationship of the two being time.
I’m used to relaxing into space, but entering time in this particular way was really helpful for me. (I used it with one of my psychotheapy cleints during the week, too, with wonderful effect.)
It was particularly noticeable to me that, though time, space and knowledge could be differentiated, on the other hand, the three were inextricably a unity, so to speak – an empty unity.
~
Words which matter to us point to felt experiencing , so I have found myself asking during this last year, under the influence of TSK: “To what human experiencing does the word ‘time’ refer?” And the deeper I go into it the more the question asks me to choose to be a person, and ‘turn up’ here on planet Earth for relationship.
I was at my Tai Chi lesson today and at some stage I was practicing exercise 16, while being face-to- face with my teacher and listening to his instructions. Everything fell away in the directness, the intimacy, of our contact, and there was nothing left but presence. This is one thing toward which the word ‘time’ points.
I got, too, that it takes a lot of courage to be a person. I am grateful to the TSK vision for this opportunity.
Regards,
Christopher.
Hi, Michael.
Thanks for responding. It’s interesting that we are habituated to the separation of ‘subject’ and ‘object’ and that space radically dissolves this seemingly implacable division. However, another aspect of our habit-energy is that time presents the subject-object polarisation as a cathected polarity (or, because of a cathected polarity, if you like).
Perhaps contacting the reality of time’s dynamic purifies it of cathected patterns. As a result time presents a holistically blissful energy. This blissful energy is, at the same time, the root of our emotionality (which, in childhood, found form in cathexis).
So, taking this into account, maybe you’re right about the stronger invitation. I’m trying to say, clumsily, that time offers the heart it’s place in Being’s dynamism.
Christopher.
Hi Christopher,
Your exploration of time in daily life is very interesting. I wonder if time issues a stronger invitation to show up as a person (than space or knowledge usually do) because the future is always moving toward us. It is so easy to think of space as something remote, and that the knowledge we need is in short supply, but the future is always right here, offering us our next breath. –Michael