Gaynor and Peter both had trouble with the image of cones. My aim here will just be to suggest a few possibilities. Since TSK is so rich in possibilities, there is no need to struggle with the cone analogy. But perhaps, as Rinpoche suggests, it opens some new ways of understanding space and time.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0If you think of a point as the point of origin (for a particular experience, a particular perception, etc.), how does the origin play its role as origin? How does something emerge from it. One answer is to say that the point expands in the form of a cone. The cone retains the structure of the point; that is, the ‘mouth’ of the cone is still a circle. The circle of the cone\u00c2\u00a0is empty, and in that sense too it is like the point, because ‘nothing’ is there.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0Now, you could also say that a point when it expands becomes a circle, or a sphere, rather than a cone. But the reason it makes sense to single out a cone has to do with our commitment to the linear unfolding of time. We do not expand in all directions at once; we expand in a linear way. So there the cone makes sense.<\/p>\n
The linear commitment of time, when expressed in the form a cone, creates new possibilities, because it is not just one-dimensional. It is possible to trace along the sides of the cone, and also the space within the cone. Now we are closer to the ‘sacred dimensions’ that the book deals with. So the cone is an opening, but at the same time a restriction (this was a point already explored in the first book: see pp. 246-47). To go beyond this restriction, we have available the possibility of 16. See the illustrations in Dimensions, from pp. 241-256.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0As to Peter’s other question: why 16 rather than 4 or 64, the book makes clear that this is in some sense arbitrary (see pp. 4-5). I would say: four is too easy and 64 is too hard.<\/p>\n
Jack<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gaynor and Peter both had trouble with the image of cones. My aim here will just be to suggest a few possibilities. Since TSK is so rich in possibilities, there is no need to struggle with the cone analogy. But … Continue reading