How is Time experienced by Bodhisattvas and Buddhas?

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Vasana
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How is Time experienced by Bodhisattvas and Buddhas?

Post by Vasana »

As the title says, How is Time experienced by,

1. Bodhisattvas?
2 Buddhas?

Sometimes I think about the endless nature of samsara and the thought alone seems tedious, both for beings and prospective Bodhisattvas. Like watching a soap opera omnibus on repeat again and again and again and again, ad-nfinitum, ad-nauseum. I'm almost certain that this impatient aversion is the result of my not thoroughly understanding what time really is for a mindstream that's not bound by the same constraints of identification as those possesed by sentient beings.

It's also said that Bodhisattvas on the first Bhumi can manifest in a hundred aeons in an insant. What does that actually mean?
'When thoughts arise, recognise them clearly as your teacher'— Gampopa
'When alone, examine your mind, when among others, examine your speech'.— Atisha
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Caoimhghín
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Re: How is Time experienced by Bodhisattvas and Buddhas?

Post by Caoimhghín »

Vasana wrote: Tue Nov 07, 2017 9:36 pm As the title says, How is Time experienced by,

1. Bodhisattvas?
2 Buddhas?

Sometimes I think about the endless nature of samsara and the thought alone seems tedious, both for beings and prospective Bodhisattvas. Like watching a soap opera omnibus on repeat again and again and again and again, ad-nfinitum, ad-nauseum. I'm almost certain that this impatient aversion is the result of my not thoroughly understanding what time really is for a mindstream that's not bound by the same constraints of identification as those possesed by sentient beings.

It's also said that Bodhisattvas on the first Bhumi can manifest in a hundred aeons in an insant. What does that actually mean?
1. Normally
2. Not at all

Thats just my best guess though. There is no doctrinal weight or anything of the like behind that appraisal.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
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Queequeg
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Re: How is Time experienced by Bodhisattvas and Buddhas?

Post by Queequeg »

This morning, for some reason, I was thinking about 9/11, and for a second, I forgot how long ago it happened. I thought, was it 2011? And then I realized its been 16 years. I remember bicycling between the towers on the Sunday before, looking up and thinking I was standing in Rome before it was sacked... 16 years and I remember it well. I remember the blue skies and standing in the quiet and remarkably empty sunday afternoon plaza with the towers stretching up beside me. I then started thinking back to high school, and its been mumble mumble years. I remember a lot of that, too, and it doesn't seem that long ago. Decades are instantaneous as I look back in my memory. But a century is unfathomable because I have not experienced a century... yet.

When a Buddha awakens, they say they remember all of their past lives deep into the remote, infinite past. They remember it all like it was earlier today. Bodhisattvas are said to remember many of their past lives, but even they can only look so far.

When you can look back over time and see eternity in a single moment, I think its something like us remembering the last decade. You both understand how long an eternity is, and how short.

Speculation.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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PuerAzaelis
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Re: How is Time experienced by Bodhisattvas and Buddhas?

Post by PuerAzaelis »

Vasana wrote: Tue Nov 07, 2017 9:36 pm As the title says, How is Time experienced by ...
I don't even know how time is experienced by normal persons.

E.g.:

Does time exist in its own right? Or is it a property of something else?
Vasana wrote: Tue Nov 07, 2017 9:36 pm It's also said that Bodhisattvas on the first Bhumi can manifest in a hundred aeons in an insant. What does that actually mean?
Maybe they have a Tardis.
Generally, enjoyment of speech is the gateway to poor [results]. So it becomes the foundation for generating all negative emotional states. Jampel Pawo, The Certainty of the Diamond Mind

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White Lotus
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Re: How is Time experienced by Bodhisattvas and Buddhas?

Post by White Lotus »

The present moment is satori, it is enlightenment. For me this moment is a flow. For a Buddha perhaps not. Tom. :namaste:
in any matters of importance. dont rely on me. i may not know what i am talking about. take what i say as mere speculation. i am not ordained. nor do i have a formal training. i do believe though that if i am wrong on any point. there are those on this site who i hope will quickly point out my mistakes.
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Rick
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Re: How is Time experienced by Bodhisattvas and Buddhas?

Post by Rick »

Vasana wrote: Tue Nov 07, 2017 9:36 pmI'm almost certain that this impatient aversion is the result of my not thoroughly understanding what time really is for a mindstream that's not bound by the same constraints of identification as those possesed by sentient beings.
I would think that realized beings experience time in two ways simultaneously: not at all (as do those in deep flow, meditation, etc.) *and* conventionally (clock time — tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock ...).
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily ...
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Queequeg
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Re: How is Time experienced by Bodhisattvas and Buddhas?

Post by Queequeg »

PuerAzaelis wrote: Tue Nov 07, 2017 10:31 pm
I don't even know how time is experienced by normal persons.
:applause:
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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