Descriptions of time, level 1We take time merely as a structure for indexing states of objects, which involves the picture of objects embedded in a temporal grid. In this view, a temporal grid fulfills the 'lower space' need for ordering events in a linear, cause-oriented series. (p. 81, TSK)
Time, on--or as--the lower level, seems diffuse, or distributed. Instead of expressing the openness of Great Space, it times out things, differences, distinctions, and qualities. Its expressiveness becomes a linear stream of significations which, in their assertiveness, are exclusive, mutually obscuring. Great Time's penetrating evocation becomes a blur of meanings which draw us out and along without ever getting down to the main issue, the presence of Great Space. (p. 100, TSK) On the ordinary level of experience, we still think very much in terms of an 'object-with-characteristic-power' orientation. Because we do not take time seriously, considering it only as an abstraction or an index, some aspect of it has become a hidden factor. (p. 120, TSK) Lived time is a rather curious thing. It preserves the abstract, index character of time as used in the physical sciences, while also appearing to us at times as compelling, inexorable, or merciless--it carries us along from point to point. (p. 121, TSK) The ordinary view of time has the effect of embedding all situations in a linear series so that they gain their significance from their environment or location between the orienting past and the confining future . . . . So the net effect is deadening as far as appreciation of the present is concerned. (p. 144, TSK) Time expresses a world in which objects and entities have identities, are independent, interreact as part of their independence, and are distinguishable from mere linguistic characterizations of them (meanings and definitions within ordinary time). (p. 148, TSK) On the first level, a central fact about `things' is that they are transitory. It is characteristic of the first level that we try to establish ourselves as autonomous beings, and confront reality as a contrasting thing, as a world of objects. We try to set up stable `things', but they are never completely distinct and isolated entities. (p. 153, TSK) Time...expresses the distance between the self and its object, thus delineating and ensuring their difference (according to the self's view). The power of Time fragments, becoming the volition of the self, on the one hand, set in contrast to the energy of nature and physical process, on the other. (p. 169, TSK) The self is . . . in an impoverished version of the `present', which is pointed out by the fact that the self is always up to something, going somewhere, intending something. There is an inherent directedness to the self's position, and this shows up in the tripartite structure of ordinary time--the experienced, ego-centered `present' is always coming from the past and headed toward the future. To be in this kind of present is to be frustrated and off-balance. (p. 173, TSK) We relegate 'time' to the status of a stable background within which objects and identities are preserved intact, and propositions and interpretations mean something. (p. 194, TSK) Just as space is the empty container for what is real, so time is the domain within which events occur. `Time' `measures out' or `distributes', separating one event from another and making it possible to establish order. (p. 100, LOK) Linear time is not only an unbroken flow; rather, it is sharply divided into the three domains of past, present, and future. The present moment stands at the exact center: To one side is the past, fixed and immutable; to the other is the future, not yet known but apparently predictable in principle. (p. 181, LOK) [Time is,] on a lower level, the measuring out of experience in accord with the rhythms of the cosmos, the earth, and the human body. Whatever exists manifests in time and is bound by time to the rhythm established by the two points of its birth and decay. This rhythm make possible participation in the conventional instant realm without which the subject would have no feedback or place to act. Between these points of beginning and ending lies the 'middle realm' that constitutes the 'bystanders's' field of participation. The 'bystander' thus maintains 'middle ground' as the real, reproducing it through a series of transitions that transmit the underlying rhythm. The nature of this transmission founds the 'bystander's' participation, guaranteeing it in a way that makes non-participation highly unlikely. Beginning and ending are not called into question. (p. 416, LOK) |
 Self-centeredness obscures the vastness of space and time available by consolidating against it. Time is reduced to mere points in a line, to a handy and fixed device for keeping track of things and identities. (p. 44, DOT I)
Consciousness is insensitive and yields only indirect, clumsy contact, because it and linear time are viscous, dense, impure. That is, they are not totally frictionless and translucent, and hence are not capable of responsiveness free from distortion and resistance. So no effective contact is available, and the overall course of life does not permit much real achievement, penetration of obstacles, or fulfillment. (p. 48, DOT I) Overwhelming in its presence, time's rhythm marks and measures our lives. The steady, impersonal dynamic of time unnerves us, reminding us that we are not in control of our own lives and undermining the importance of the stream of desires, wishes, hopes, and fears that engage our attention. Perhaps that is why we tend to make time into the lifeless, invisible background for experience: a convenient grid for measurements that help us distinguish one set of events or experiences from another. (p. 74, VOK) As transmitted by the dynamic of time, experience unfolds along a continuum from past to present to future. Active in the present, we take form from the past and live forward into the future. The three aspects of time seem inseparable: manufactured by the same process, composed of the same substance, conducted forward by the same mechanism. (p. 73, DTS) When time's momentum is measured out as the lifeless ticking away of linear temporality, the intrinsic 'aliveness' of time is channeled into mechanisms for multiplication and duplication. Played out into a world of positions, time sets up boundaries, identities, partitions, and limits, affirming a 'from-to' order that moves away from the centerless center of time's flow. Filtered through such 're-presentations' of knowledge, the creative energy of time disappears from view, and becomes inaccessible. The 'self' as 'bystander' serves as guardian of this order. When the self 'stands by', it claims the right to possess what time presents, assuring that time's momentum will 'take form' in accord with a specific logic. (p. 19, KTS) Shaped into a structured sequence, occupied by a 'bystander-self', permitting only the sequential knowledge available to the 'owner-occupant', time's creative potential is stripped away beyond the point of recognizing that anything has been lost. (p. 38, KTS) |