Moments and transitions

Thank you David and Peter – I find your posts very helpful in trying to understand this area.

In my usual pedantic way, I started my practice by wondering what constitutes a ‘moment’. My initial thought was that perhaps it was like the length of a heartbeat or the time of a second, and with that definition, I could see the possibility of interspersing ‘intermediate moments’ between the moments thus perceived. However, I decided to look further into the pages of LOK, and came across this definition on page 113:

“In conventional understanding, a ‘moment’ is the span of time necessary to ‘hold’ a single discrete event.”

This is a lot shorter span than I had been working with. When I returned to practise with this concept, I noticed that the trees outside cast shadows on the verandah. As the breeze rustles these, I can ‘hold’ each minute movement, can perceive the shadows flitting back and forth. If, as I ‘hold’ the event, each of these perceptions is a moment, I cannot conceive of interspersing intermediate moments between such fleeting movement. It is simply too fast. Similarly, I perceive water trickling in my garden fountain. Each flash of light is so fast, yet I perceive it. Can I really interpose intermediate moments within such a sequence? – I have great difficulty observing and measuring within such fleeting environments. Each finer and finer act of perception creates a finer delineation of ‘moment’. Perhaps these are, after all, what Tarthang Tulku calls ‘intermediate moments’.

I have also started working on the practice “Point of transition”. In doing so, I wonder whether the transition between moments is the same as the transition between thoughts/perceptions. A thought may be developed, embellished, etc., but each individual thought seems to take place in a moment, and to fully occupy that moment. As I move from thought to thought, an ‘energy spark’ seems to generate the next, as the energy within the previous thought dissipates. But is this the same as a transition between moments? In a meditative state there can be periods without thought, but such periods often also create states within which time concepts change, or where one has no sense of ‘moment to moment’ time movement (one only realises what has happened after the event).`If the definition of a moment is moveable, does this challenge what is meant by ‘transition’? If some form of thought is not present, is there a transition at all – isn’t it just one continuous moment? ‘Moments’ seem to be an artificial construct to match our thought patterns. I wonder – is ‘moment’ a ‘given’, and therefore the point of transition is universal, or is a ‘moment’ in fact my own creation, and the point of transition dependent on my perception? Do I create the moments that I perceive?

Maybe I’m just confused – I don’t have any answers, just questions.

Gaynor