Time and Mind Do Not Correspond

What kind of dharma is time? Is it a substantially existent dharma similar to matter? Time is not material form (rūpa), not a substantially existent dharma, and not a mental dharma either; it is neither form nor mind—it is a conditioned dharma that is not associated with mind. Why is time not associated with mind? Because any dharma manifested by mind is necessarily associated with mind; the dharmas conjured and produced by the three transformative consciousnesses (parināma) acting in concert are associated with those three transformative consciousnesses, arising and ceasing, changing, increasing and decreasing, transforming according to the mind. But time, this provisional dharma, is not conjured and produced by the three transformative consciousnesses; it is a provisional dharma manifested through the conjunction of mental dharmas, material dharmas, and mental factors (caittas). Therefore it cannot transform according to the mind; it cannot arise nor cease, cannot be lengthened nor shortened, and can neither be gained nor lost. Time is not a substantially existent dharma like matter. Material form is formed from the seeds of the four great elements and is a real dharma, whereas time is not formed from any seeds; it is manifested through the relative changes of matter, and therefore is a provisional dharma, not substantially existent—like a turtle's hair or a rabbit's horns, invisible, untouchable, and ungraspable.

What, then, is the function of time? Time has no substantive function; a provisional dharma cannot be put to use. Because time is a provisional dharma and has no utility, it also cannot be given to one another or seized from one another. Someone might say: "You took up my time; you wasted my time." In fact there is no such thing at all—no one can take up or waste time. For example, suppose I am supposed to be eating a meal right now, and you come over, and I have to keep you company in conversation and deal with your matters, and so the meal goes uneaten. Does this involve time? Whether eating, conversing, or resolving matters, there is no dharma called "time" in any of them. From beginning to end it is only the operation of people, affairs, and things—the three running together in conjunction—and the length of this process is what displays time, making people feel that it took this long to resolve these matters.

What can display the length of the operation of mental dharmas and material dharmas is called time; the length of a process of material change is called time. For example, one month after a baby is born is called "the full month"; one month is time, but in fact it is just one process in the baby's growth and development—there is no such thing as "time." Whether the baby grows and develops for one year, ten years, a hundred years, one second, one minute, one hour, or one day, all of these refer to the baby's process of growth; there is no dharma called time. Time is passively displayed. Some people say that time now seems to have stopped, to be unmoving; in fact it is the mind that has stopped moving, that no longer discriminates—there is no such thing as time. To say that time moves or does not move is conceptual proliferation (prapañca), just like discussing how a turtle's hair or a rabbit's horns might be—it is all conceptual proliferation.

When we look at time, we look at clocks. On a clock, the second hand, minute hand, and hour hand combine to display time; without these hands there is no time, and with these hands there is likewise no time. Most fundamentally, time is displayed depending on the position of the sun moving across the sky; without the sun there is no time, and with the sun there is likewise no time. When the sun rises above the horizon, humans define this state as the morning of a day; at the same time the temperature is relatively low, so they define the state of the rising morning sun as "early morning." When the sun rises to the sky overhead, humans define it as the noon of a day. When the sun descends below the horizon, humans define this state as the evening of a day. Thus one circuit of the sun's movement is defined by humans as one day. Then, by tallying the cycles of the sun's movement, they define ten days, half a month, one to twelve months, one year, two years, and so on. All lengths of time can only be displayed by relying on material form; there is no real dharma called time.

If someone asks me to handle some matters, I say I have no time; in fact no one possesses time. It is only that each person has their own affairs to attend to and cannot do other things, and this is provisionally named "having no time." Doing anything is related to mental dharmas and material dharmas, and mental dharmas are dharmas of arising, ceasing, and change formed from the seeds of consciousness, also not substantially existent, though somewhat more real than time. Material dharmas are all dharmas formed from the seeds of the four great elements, likewise not substantially existent, only a bit more real than time. Mental dharmas and material dharmas are both illusory dharmas, and the time displayed by their conjunction is an even more illusory dharma.

If someone wishes to live longer, it is not that time has been lengthened, but that the process of operation of their material body and five aggregates (pañca-skandha) has been lengthened. Some people live a short time not because time has been shortened, but because the process of operation of their five-aggregate body is short—there is no such mark or dharma as time. Some people like to make schedules; in fact these are not schedules of time, not arrangements of time, but flowcharts for handling people, affairs, and things—arrangements of the processes involving people, affairs, and things. If there were no mark of time in one's life, how many bonds could the mind be liberated from? How many constraints did one previously impose on oneself because of the notion of time? How many attachments were added?

For instance, take a dream, a great dream, a long dream, in which one lives a whole lifetime, living for several kalpas—through sweetness and bitterness, joys and sorrows, partings and reunions, displaced and destitute. Upon waking, one discovers it was merely a dream: nothing happened, no one appeared, nothing was gained or lost, and oneself is safe and sound. In the dream there were no people, affairs, or things, and no time; everything was illusory, and upon waking one is liberated from the dream. Likewise, 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 the dream one has at night: there are no real people, affairs, or things, no time and no space—there is nothing at all; it is illusory. Upon waking, one discovers that one has, after all, nothing gained and nothing lost, no attachments and no obstructions, entirely without affairs; at that moment there is great liberation and ultimate attainment of buddhahood. When one wakes from the great dream of birth and death, one finds that sentient beings' attainment of buddhahood occurs in only a single instant—there is no time span of three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas. All of our efforts are for the sake of waking from the dream, so let us dream no more.