time

The Buddhist teaching about time is closely linked to the doctrine of impermanence (see entry). What we see as the passage of time when analyzed in large segments becomes ungraspable when analyzed on the level of single moments of time. Nonetheless, when operating on the ordinary level of discourse, the Buddha taught about the passage of time on both the macrocosmic and microcosmic levels. Just as all beings are born, grow old, get sick and die, so too do entire world-systems come into being, achieve stasis, decay, and cease to be. And every moment of thought can also be seen as coming into being, abiding, decaying, and disappearing.

The length of the process on the level of a world system is called a great aeon, or mahakalpa in Sanskrit. The length of a mahakalpa is calculated as follows: "Starting from a lifespan of ten years, for every hundred years the age of people increases by one year, and their height increases by one inch. This keeps on increasing until the lifespan of humans reaches a full 84,000 years. Then this is followed by a process of decrease in the same ratio. For every hundred years, there is a decrease of a year and an inch from the lifespan and the height of a human being, until his age reaches ten years again. One complete process of increase and decrease makes up one kalpa--16,798,000 years. A thousand of these make up on small kalpa. Twenty small kalpas make up one medium-sized kalpa. Four medium-sized kalpas make up one great kalpa (1,343,800,000,000 years). Each of the four stages takes up twenty small kalpas--twenty kalpas for coming into being, twenty kalpas for dwelling, twenty kalpas for decaying, and twenty kalpas for going empty." (EDR I)

"The very first kalpa [of a particular world-system], of course, begins the cycle of coming into being, stasis, decay, and emptiness. Those four terms are explained as follows. A thousand small kalpas together make up a middle sized kalpa. One middle-sized kalpa covers a period of coming into being. A period of stasis also spans twenty small kalpas, a period of decay is twenty small kalpas long, and a period of emptiness is also twenty small kalpas.

"'But,' you say, ' I can't possibly conceive of that long a period of time.' Well, if you can't grasp this concept, then I'll shrink the kalpa down a bit for you to enable you to understand. Let's discuss the lifespan of a person. A person's lifespan extends for several decades, and those years span the time of being born, the time of growing old, the time of sickness, and the time of death. Those four different periods of time are synonymous with the coming into being, stasis, decay, and emptiness of a worldÄ system.

"Then you say, 'Well, I still don't understand--I still can't comprehend this idea.' Well, we'll shrink it some more and talk about a single year's time. A year has four seasons; Spring, summer, fall, and winter. Spring is the period of coming into being; summer is the period of stasis; fall is the period of decay; and winter is the period of emptiness. Do you see? In the springtime we prepare the fields for planting. The fields are planted with the intention that the plants will come into being. Seeds are planted in the earth, and the summertime, after the seeds have sprouted and the plants are flourishing is the period of stasis. In the fall the plants reach maturity, and their harvest takes place in the autumn, just as the period of decay sets in. Then, with the coming of winter, after everything that grew from the earth has been harvested, there is a period of emptiness. The principle applies in the same way." (FAS Ch5-6 115-117)

Suppose, o monks, there was a huge rock of one solid mass, one mile long, one mile wide, one mile high, without split or flaw. And at the end of every one hundred years a man should come and rub against it with a silken cloth. Then that huge rock would wear off and disappear quicker than a kappa (i.e., kalpa). (SN XV 5, quoted in Trevor Ling, Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 72)

The Buddha also taught that time is relative to our state of mind; it passes more quickly when we are happy and less quickly when we are unhappy. Therefore, passage of time and lifespan differs on the different paths of rebirth (see Ten Dharma Realm, Six Paths of Rebirth).

"The Heaven of the Four Kings (see Six Desire Heavens) is the heaven closest to us, located halfway up Mount Sumeru, as explained in the Buddhist sutras. It does not reach the peak of Mount Sumeru. The four great heavenly kings are the eastern heavenly king, the southern heavenly king, the western heavenly king, and the northern heavenly king. The lifespan of beings in the Heaven of the Four Kings is five hundred years; after five hundred years, they are destined to fall, and the Five Marks of Decay appear [i.e., signs of the impending death of a god]. . . . A day and a night in the Heaven of the Four Kings is equivalent to fifty years among humans. 'How is that the case?,' you ask.

"I'll give you an example to help you understand. If we feel very happy on a given day, the day passes without our even being aware of it. We feel the day was very short. All of us are like that. Because it is blissful in the heavens, a day and a night there is equal to fifty years among humans.

"Why is fifty years such a long time in the realm of humans? In the realm of humans there is continual disturbance and affliction, suffering and difficulty, fighting and quarrelling. People are busy from morning to night,a nd they don't have any idea what they are doing. They are like flies in the air, flying north, south, east, and west without knowing what they are doing. You haven't any bliss here, and so the time is very long.

"Then again, a day and a night among humans is equivalent to fifty years in the hells, because the pain and suffering in the hells is so intense, and so the beings there feel the time is extended. From this you should understand that time is neither short nor long." (SS II 68-69)

According to Mahayana Buddhist teaching, time is fundamentally unreal and is the product of distinction-making in the mind.

Past thought cannot be got at, present thought cannot be got at, and future thought cannot be got at. (VS 124)

"Earlier a disciple asked me, 'What is time?' I haven't any time. There is no time. Time is just each person's individual awareness of long and short; that is all. If you are happy every day, fifty years can go by and you won't feel it has been a long time. If one's life is very blissful, if one has no worries, anxieties, anger, or afflictions, one's entire life seems but a short time--the blink of an eye. Ultimately, time is nothing more than a distinction based upon each person's awareness. . . . (SS II 69)

If 'the present' and 'future' exist presupposing the 'the past,' 'the present' and 'future' will exist in 'the past.'

If 'the present' and 'future' did not exist there [in 'the past'], how could 'the present' and 'future' exist presupposing that 'past'?

Without presupposing 'the past' the two things ['the present' and 'future'] cannot be proved to exist.

Therefore, neither present nor future time exist.

In this way the remaining two [times] can be inverted.

Thus one would regard 'highest,' 'lowest' and 'middle,' etc., and oneness and difference.

A non-stationary 'time' cannot be 'grasped;' and a stationary 'time' which can be grasped does not exist.

How, then, can one perceive time if it is not 'grasped?'

Since time is dependent on a thing (bhava), how can time [exist] without a thing?

There is not any thing which exists; how, then, will time become [something]?

(Nagarjuna, "Mulamadhyamakakarika", Streng, tr. Emptiness)

(Source: Epstein, 2003: p. 204 - 206)

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1) Chinese Mandarin: shr , 2) Sanskrit: kala, 3) Pali: kala.

See also: world-system.

Buddhist Text Translation Society (http://www.BTTSonline.org) References: TT 6; EDR I 28-29; UW 219-220, 222; FAS Ch5-6 115Ä 117; FAS Ch9 147-148; SS II 68-69; SS IV ?; VS 124.
 

Source: http://online.sfsu.edu/%7Erone/Buddhism/BuddhistDict/BDT.html

(NOTE: Numerous corrections and enhancements have been made under Shastra tradition and "Fair Use" by an Anonymous Buddhist Monk Redactor (Compiler) of this Online Buddhist Encyclopedia Compilation)