I have been directing my last few posts not only to the comments of others, but to those of you who are not commenting, and who perhaps are not sure what this is all about.
The first TSK book, which we are working with now, is not an easy read. Some people fall in love with it. But most people picking it up for the first time think they must be missing something, and get discouraged. It is made even more difficult by the fact that we are jumping into the middle of it. The readings in the weeks to follow is actually more inviting, easier to penetrate.
This week, though, we finish up our reading from the TSK book. The chapter starts (paragraph 2) by advising us not to get attached to “nonstandard” experiences of time. Still, you may wish you had some experiences like that, so you could practice not getting attached to them. The truth is, though, that we all have such experiences. If you took any five minutes in your day, your relationship to time changes dozens of time. In one of the TSK books, Rinpoche writes that every pea on a plate is different, but we don’t care to notice that. Moments of time are like that. To begin to notice that, we need to develop a certain skill in tuning into the temporal dimension of our experience, a little like surfing on a wave or skiing, constantly shifting your weight as circumstances change. You could just ask, “What is this moment like?” And then again in the next moment, and the next, and so on. Do it right now, even if it means stopping your reading for a minute or so. What do you discover?
The chapter goes on to challenge the belief that time is made up of moments. We want to take that challenge on very slowly. After all, we are exploring linear time in this particular program, so we want to linger over our moments. Of course, if they happen to dissolve into something different, fine. But there’s no hurry.
The discussion of ‘lower time’ starting at the bottom of p. 136Â is interesting. It is our belief in ‘lower time’ that keeps us from even noticing that there is a temporal dimension to experience. How do we get from one moment to the next? Who know? Not Mr. Lower-Level!
Also interesting is the claim that lots of the obstacles we encounter when we try to change (p. 138) are themselves an expression of lower-level time in operation. Until we break through (dive into) time, this is necessarily a theoretical statement. But it may be helpful in suggesting why this kind of study is helpful.
Well, that’s enough for one post. Maybe I can comment on the rest of the chapter later. As for the new Exercise, TSK Ex. 26, I’ve already suggested it’s fairly sophisticated. In effect, it’s a way to try to make experiential the theoretical insight I referred to in the previous paragraph. Give it a try.
JackÂ