Theos-Talk Archives (November 1998 Message tt00445)

[DALLAS ]   OK Jerry:  you are right that most visualize eternity as "time ticking away."  But as we know that "time" is relative to the perceiver, there is somewhere an ultimate reality.  I do not know where that is or how it is measured.  So, being ignorant, I set the equation unsolved in my mental note-book, and let it rest there, while seeking for an answer.
 
Its not so hard to conceive. Just think of what it would be like if time suddenly stopped.


In one place I read that Karma can be perceived in action only by Those who know the "ultimate divisions of time."  I puzzled over this phrase for long and have reached no conclusion.  But since the claim is made there seems to be a reason for it.  
 
Karma exists only in time. The word means action, and action implies movement
in space-time. Outside of time (i.e., eternity) is therefore karma-less.


Is it that there are Those who in this set of conditions have indeed transcended our notions of time and its divisions ?

Where does time really exist but in our own minds. Inside us we have a 
sense of time. All movement including growth implies time of some kind.
But in meditation we can experience time-less-ness. Even in sleep we
have motion, and thus time, but time there goes faster or slower than
it does in the waking state, which is largely based on the motion of the Sun
going around the Earth. It is not so much that we have to transcend time, but
rather our own inner sense of time which includes all motion or doing  or
sense of becoming.
 
Another thing that troubles me is the concept that some of us want to "stop the World, I want to get off."  Personally I cannot conceive that such a step would make for any great happiness or benefit.
 
Agreed. Although this is the goal of most of the great world's religions.  
The happiness that comes from escaping samsara is temporary.


I know that the Buddha said that by doing that one secured relief from "Sorrow."  That is quite true, as I understand his reasons.  But that falls in with the idea of Karma -- and the idea that we can secure a release from "sorrow," by canceling or balancing any causes that we may have generated so as to cause OUR sorrow.
 
He taught the Middle Way. This way is not easy to define, but basically
it means transcending both sorrow and happiness and all other dualities
as well. It is not a balance so much as a trancendence of extremes.


If we are able to do that we can go into "Atyantika Pralaya" as described by HPB in SD I p. 371 top.  The Jivanmukta or Nirvanee enters a personal state that is oblivion for an enormous period until the next Maha manvantara requires its re-emergence into manifestation.  I ask my self what is gained by such isolation and I then think of the description of the PRATYEKHA BUDDHA given at the end of the "TWO PATHS"  -- "VOICE OF THE SILENCE" p. 47 fn (in my book) and, the description of the DHARMAKAYA  (p. 77-8 footnote in VOICE ).
 
Agreed. Theosophy taks the path of the bodhisattva.

Jerry S.