Discussion of time in Mahayana texts

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Aemilius
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Discussion of time in Mahayana texts

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"It was recognized that the determination of the sameness of the three times was beyond the capabilities of ordinary man. The Ta Chih Tu Lun, commentary of the Prajñaapaaramitaa compiled by Kumaarajiiva, states that those who do not have all-knowledge will encounter obstacles when they try to achieve a cognition of the three times. Even such famous disciples as 'Saariputra and Mañju'sri were unable to comprehend this sameness fully. Thus, the Buddha has to resort to two methods when teaching about time: When he teaches the penetration and comprehension of the three times without obstacles, this may be called his analytical teaching (vibhajya-nirde'sa); But when he teaches that the triple times have not even a single characteristic mark, this is the teaching of limitless emptiness (ananta-nirde'sa).

some of the Mahaayaana texts elaborated the doctrine that the three times are all equal and the same without distinctions. They reasoned that if the division of time into three parts was an inherently valid and real one, belonging to the very nature of time, then one must be able to delineate clear limits between the past and present or the present and the future. But, say these texts, one cannot discover such limits, for the beginning of time is beyond comprehension and is never determined and the end of time stretches out endlessly without a limit. Since the beginning and end of time can never be established, then neither can the middle of time.

If the triple times have not even a single distinguishing characteristic, does this mean that the Mahaayaana taught the nonexistence of time? It is never said that time is lacking existence, but only that time is empty ('suunyata) and that it is suchness (tathataa), for since it lack any marks, it is the whole reality, the truly universal. But this is not only true for time, it is true of everything, for example, form, skandhas, dharmas all conditioned things. Saying that the denial of any real characteristic mark is in fact the denial of existence would imply that the Mahaayaana suutras are teaching a doctrine of nihilism, which they explicitly deny.

If the three times cannot be separated, the next question to be handled by these texts was whether one can establish the idea of long time and short time. While we might expect an immediate answer along the same lines as that used with regard to the three times, such is not the case in the Avatamsaka-suutra. In this text, it is maintained that our universe is but one of thousands of universes or world systems. All of these worlds are not on the same scale, and so our own system is encapsulated within another realm that in expanse is beyond anything we can comprehend. We live, says the Avatamsaka-suutra, in the realm of Saakyamuni, and if we were to add up all the days and nights of our world system until they totaled a Kalpa, these countless years would be equal to but one day and one night in the realm of Amitaabha. And if one were to stay in Amitaabha's realm for a kalpa of that time, it would be equal to one day and one night in the next realm of Vajrasamhata and one kalpa there would equal one day and one night in Dharmaketu's realm, and so on through hundreds of millions of Buddha realms. It is interesting to note that the names for these realms, which reach out beyond our possible understanding, are in part the names of the former Buddhas described in the Lalitavistara, where fifty-four names are given as part of the endless list of Buddhas who have existed in the aeons of the past. In the Avatamsaka-suutra, these Buddhas of the past have been transformed into the dwellers of the realms which stretch out into endless time and space. On the other hand, one can turn around and look at the point of a hair or a grain of sand, and there, the text says, are contained a thousand worlds, small beyond anything we can possibly imagine and one day and one night in our Saakyamuni Buddha realm, we can infer would be a kalpa of time in one of these. In this way, we can carry the description out to a point in which we have kalpas of time in one world system equal to a trillionth of a second in another."

Discussion of time in Mahayana texts
Lewis R. Lancaster
Philosophy East and West 24, no. 2, April 1974, pp.209-214
http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/Phi ... f_time.htm
svaha
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