Time and the Non-Concomitance of Mind

What kind of dharma is time? Is it a substantially existent dharma similar to matter? Time is not a material dharma (rūpa-dharma), nor is it a mental dharma (citta-dharma). It is neither material nor mental; it is a mental concomitant-disassociated formation (citta-viprayukta-saṃskāra). Why is time disassociated from the mind? Because dharmas manifested by the mind must be associated with the mind; dharmas produced through the combined transformation of the three transforming consciousnesses are associated with those three transforming consciousnesses, subject to birth, cessation, change, increase, and decrease, transforming according to the mind. However, this provisional dharma of time is not produced by the transformation of the three transforming consciousnesses. It is a provisional dharma manifested through the combination of mental dharmas, material dharmas, and mental factors (caittas). Therefore, it cannot transform according to the mind; it cannot be born nor destroyed, cannot be lengthened nor shortened, cannot be gained nor lost. Time is not a substantially existent dharma like matter. Material dharmas (rūpa-dharma) are formed by the four great seeds; they are real dharmas. But time is not formed by any seeds; it is manifested by the relative changes of matter. Hence, it is a non-substantially existent dharma, a provisional dharma, like tortoise hair and rabbit horns—invisible, intangible, ungraspable.

What is the function of time? Time has no substantial function; a provisional dharma cannot be used. Because time is a provisional dharma and has no use, it also cannot be given or taken away by others. Someone might say, "You occupied my time," or "You wasted my time." In reality, there is no such thing; no one can occupy or waste time. For example, suppose I should be eating now, but you come over, and I have to talk with you and resolve your matter, so I end up not eating. Does this involve time? Whether eating, talking, or resolving matters, there is no dharma called "time" involved. From beginning to end, it is the operation of people, events, and things; it is the combined operation of these three elements. The length of this process manifests time.

The length of the operating process of mental dharmas and material dharmas, the length of the manifestation process, is called time. The length of the process of material change is called time. For example, an infant one month after birth is said to be "one month old." One month is time, but it is actually one process within the infant's growth and development; there is no such thing as "time." An infant growing for one year, ten years, one hundred years, one second, one minute, one hour, one day—all refer to the infant's growth process. There is no dharma called "time"; time is passively manifested. Some say that now time seems to have stopped, not moving. In reality, it is the mind that has stopped, ceased discriminating; there is no such thing as time. Speaking of time moving or not moving is all speculative talk, like discussing how tortoise hair or rabbit horns are—all is speculative talk.

We look at time by looking at clocks. The combination of the second hand, minute hand, and hour hand on a clock manifests time. Without these hands, there is no time; with these hands, there is equally no time. Most fundamentally, time is manifested based on the position of the sun in the sky. Without the sun, there is no time; with the sun, there is equally no time. When the sun rises above the horizon, humans define this state as the morning of a day. Simultaneously, since the temperature is relatively low, they define the state of the rising sun as morning. When the sun ascends directly overhead, humans define it as noon time of the day. When the sun descends below the horizon, humans define that state as the evening of the day. Thus, the sun completing one cycle is defined by humans as one day. Then, by counting the number of these solar cycles, they define ten days as half a month, one month to twelve months, one year, two years, etc. All lengths of time are manifested only based on material dharmas; there is no real dharma called "time."

If someone asks me to do something, I might say I have no time. In reality, no one possesses time. It's just that each person has their own matters to attend to and cannot do other things; this is provisionally named "having no time." Doing anything is always related to mental dharmas and material dharmas. Mental dharmas are formed by consciousness seeds and are dharmas subject to birth, cessation, and change; they are also not substantially real, although they are more real than time. Material dharmas are all dharmas formed by the four great seeds; they are likewise not substantially real, only slightly more real than time. Both mental dharmas and material dharmas are illusory dharmas. The time manifested by the combination of these two is an even more illusory dharma.

If someone wishes to live longer, it is not that time is stretched; rather, it is the operational process of their material body, the five aggregates, that is prolonged. Some people live shorter lives; it is not that time is shortened, but that the operational process of the five-aggregate body is short. There is no such mark or dharma as time. Some people like to make schedules. In reality, it is not a schedule of time, not an arrangement on time, but a process chart for handling people, events, and things—a flow plan for arranging people, events, and things. If the mark of time vanishes from life, how much bondage can be liberated in the mind? In the past, how many constraints did the concept of time impose upon oneself? How much more clinging did it add?

For example, having a dream, a long dream, a very long dream. In the dream, one lives a lifetime, lives for several kalpas, experiencing sweetness and bitterness, joy and sorrow, separation and reunion, displacement and wandering. Upon waking, one discovers it was merely a dream; nothing actually happened, no one actually appeared, nothing was gained or lost, and one is completely unharmed. In the dream, there were no people, events, things, nor time; everything was illusory. Upon waking, one is liberated from the dream. Similarly, all sentient beings are displaced and suffering within the great dream of birth and death. This great dream of birth and death is the same as a dream at night: there are no real people, events, or things; there is no time or space; there is nothing, all is illusory. Upon waking, one finds oneself having gained nothing and lost nothing, free from attachments and obstructions, perfectly at ease. At that moment, there is great liberation, and one ultimately attains Buddhahood. Upon awakening from the great dream of birth and death, one realizes that sentient beings attain Buddhahood only in an instant; there is no time span of three asamkhyeya kalpas.