Theos-Talk Archives (April 1994 Message tl00014)

This is by Eldon Tucker

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     As with space, there is a duality to time. There is an
abstract, perfect, unmanifest side to time, and an conditioned,
limited, manifested side. As individual Monads, we have a *person-
al* experience of both.
     This experience is one that happens in our consciousness, and
does not depend upon our state of being. We do not have to be dead,
disembodied, and away from manifestation in order to experience the
unconditioned side to things. And we do not have to have a body to
experience the limited, conditioned side of existence.
     Standing side-by-side with another, we could be having an
experience of abstract time in our own consciousness, while the
other person is only aware of his conditioned, mortal existence.
     What determines our experience is the focus of our awareness.
If we are centered in the higher principles within, we have the
higher, the unconditioned consciousness. If we are centered in our
lower principles of consciousness, we are aware of the conditioned
consciousness related to our current existence.
     In the world, there is conditioned time. Above it, and beyond
the reaches of the world, in the deep silence that surrounds
things, there is unconditioned time, abstract time.
     But it does not stop there. Yet higher is Timelessness, but
still in relation to time, looking down upon it, standing as an
Ideal to our existence throughout the sweep of time.
     And a second step higher is Perfection, without any relation-
ship to the lower, to temporal existence, being too perfect to need
to relate to anything or participate in the drama of life. And this
is part of us too, the deepest part, the highest we can penetrate
within before coming to an unknowable Mystery, which cannot be
penetrated.
     When we come into manifestation in a world, we take on its
sense of time, we have an experience of its cycles, of the flow of
life in it. We establish relationships with its inhabitants and
make karma in it, and we gather memories and build a future in it.
     Stepping out of the Ego, the center of consciousness that we
have build for ourselves for that globe, and moving on to the next
globe to experience life on another plane, we then take on a
different sense of time. On the next globe, we have another Ego
which we have evolved for it, and that Ego participates in the
different sense of time appropriate to its own globe. As we do so,
our Globe D Ego becomes dormant, inactive, asleep, without any
sensation of the passage of time because it is out of time--the
conditioned time of its world--for the present.
     Stepping into different parts of ourselves, into the Egos or
centers of consciousness for the other globes as we go from one
globe to the next, we find different qualities of time, of cycles,
a different sense of duration that we experience.
     The sense of "this is the way that things are," of this is the
time periods of evolution and where we are with respect to them--
this is all different in the different globes, the different worlds
that we visit on the other planes.
     We need to give a special meaning to the word *eternity,* to
put it in the proper perspective. There is no such thing as
eternity, when is spoken of as an absolute forever, without end
regardless of whatever universes may come and go, of whatever
scale.
     But there is a relative, a conditioned, a manifested eternity.
It would denote a time period of the existence of the world or
universe, a manvanatara. This time period is as long as things can
be, the finite version of *forever.*
     If something can exist until the end of the manvantara, it is
eternal, because it has existed as long as time itself, until the
end of time. When the universe ends and ceases to exist, its time
goes as well, and that is the practical and actual point when the
end of time happens. But this *end of time* is relative, for bigger
universes still exist, with their greater senses of time.
     Starting with pure, abstract time, the particular way that it
is cut up into cycles and made apparent in a manifested universe is
uniquely personal to the universe in question. And our experience
of time in that universe is based upon our relation to its grand
cycles and who and what we are in that universe.
     Out of manifestation in that universe, we are not in relation
to time, so there is no sense of what is happening. We need at
least Atman, the pure sense of manifest being, in that world, in
order to participate in the sense of time and duration in that
world.
     The events of a world go on, even when you're out of existence
and not there to experience them. You may come back into existence
later and find that time has marched on, that things have changed
and are different, that the various cycles have moved foreword
since your last dip into existence. But did you miss out on
something? No. Did life pass you by? No again.
     You always have a choice to be or not, and there is nothing to
miss out on. If you are ready to manifest yourself, you are in
existence somewhere, and enjoying its sense of time and its own
unique feeling of the nature of eternity. Or if you are out of
existence, you have been enjoying a sense of peace and perfection
for a moment.
     When you come into existence in a world, it is there that you
project your personal space for the moment. And it is there where
you undergo change, experience duration, and give your personal
sense of time.
     You take your time and space with you, and it is experienced
wherever you may go or whatever you may be. The clock may be
ticking away in all the many globes that you are not existing on,
and it may seem as if you are missing something. But not really.
Your clock is ticking too, and it is where you are, and it is what
you experience of time. Nothing is missed, nothing is lost.
     When you come into existence in a world, your personal time,
your personal clock synchronizes its beat to that of the world you
are in. But leaving that world, and going elsewhere, you synchro-
nize with that other place.
     The only time that is going on, and the only time that you
need be concerned with is your personal time, and it is an
important part of that stream of consciousness which you are.
     Looking at each world, it has its own clock, ticking at its
own rate. There is no absolute clock, one by which all the rest can
be measured. Just as there is no greatest space, but only the
Boundless All, so there is no greatest time, but only the Eternal
Now, a time that transcends all particular times and is really
abstract, unconditioned time.
     Although there is no absolute clock, ticking away the seconds
of time for the Boundless All, for a particular world there is its
own time, its own clock, its own ruling cycle that governs its
lifetime. And the ticking of that clock is alike to the heartbeat
of that world, the steady circulation of life energies and flow of
events as time unfolds.
     For our universe, that greater being is Brahma^, with a
lifetime of 311,040 billion years. One day in His life is called a
Planetary Manvantara. Including the night, it is 8,640,000,000
years, and constitutes the period of evolution for us in the human
kingdom. It marks off a great evolutionary period.
     This entire lifetime is a mahamanvantara, and even across it,
to the next lifetime of Brahma^, our unmanifest part, our Auric
Egg, contains seeds of karma, the essence of the experiences of our
previous existences. For the Auric Egg, as an unmanifest principle,
exists in unconditioned space and abstract time, it is unaffected
by the cyclic appearances and disappearances of the manifold
universes on the waters of space.
     We can further understand time by making some comparisons to
space. There is the particular space of our earth, of our solar
system, our galaxy, and known universe. There are unique spaces to
every world and universe, existing at greater and greater scales of
being.
     Taking one such world, we can define a coordinate system, and
give an object the frame of reference of that world. We thereby are
able to give that object position and velocity. Without that frame
of reference, there is nothing to compare to, so we could not say
that the object had any particular position or motion.
     By taking the space of a particular world, we are able to cut
out and measure space, we have a particular, finite, manifested
space to contain finite objects, objects that come into manifesta-
tion.
     In a bigger world, we have a bigger frame of reference, and
find that what we thought was the absolute standard, the absolute
coordinate system, is only one of many subspaces in a bigger scheme
of things.
     And when our world goes away, when it ceases to exist, all is
not gone, for the bigger space is still there, and the Skandhas of
the world that was, the world that has entered pralaya, return to
their respective places in that bigger space.
     The same is true for time. We have a time for the earth, for
the solar system, the galaxy, and so forth. We can define a sense
of time, the particular eternity, the reality of things, using a
particular frame of reference. We thereby give beings in that world
a place in time and a chance to participate in the drama of
evolution.
     Without a frame of reference for time, without a governing
clock to the flow of life, we could not say that we were at any
particular place in time, and there would be no way to grow and
change. There would be no world of beings in flux, no world of
beings to interact with and be changed thereby.
     In yet a bigger world, we have a bigger time, a bigger clock
to measure time by, and we find that what we thought was an
absolute standard is only one of many secondary schemes of life,
secondary cycles of existence, secondary experiences of time in a
bigger scheme of things.
     And when the world goes away, all is not gone, time does not
stop. All does not stop because that bigger clock is still ticking,
and the experiences are still possible apart from the world that
has been, whose clock is now gone, keeping pace with the heartbeat
of its parent universe.
     Looking about us, we can see ourselves existing in a Golden
Tree of Life. Beyond any manifest universe hosting us is yet a
higher one, without end, without a top--it is a Golden Tree rooted
in abstract eternity.
     And it's time is kept by a Grand Clock--a time that is beyond
all measure. For beyond the time of any universe is the time of its
parent universe. And beyond that yet another more grand time still,
also without end.
     Anywhere along these grand trees should a universe cease to
exist, we still continue to exist. We are simply left in its
parent's time and space. There is never a time when we are totally
orphaned and entirely cease to exist.
     Life exists, and always will. And it is grand beyond measure.