Real-life time travel: Travelers, religion

(ApexTV)

Anyone who disbelieves in real-life time travel may want to spend some time watching "Glitch in the Matrix" videos content creators make by gathering testimonies of inexplicable real-life experiences.

Let's time travel! - To when? - To next weekend!

An anonymous time traveler operating under the alias Darryl Dean (from 2033) claims to hold a detailed chronology of upcoming events on Earth. The mysterious man shared his shocking predictions on the internet in a bid to validate the remarkable assertion that time travel is real.

In his declaration, the time traveler prophesized alien (ET) contact and global peace. He said: "I saw that there was a lot of skepticism regarding my story, and I want to say that it is not my goal to convince everyone that I am telling the truth. I simply want to speak to those of you who will listen."

Mr. Dean insists he comes from the Year 2033 and initially intended to stay in the current era only briefly. Speaking with the paranormal investigators from the YouTube platform ApexTV, purported time traveler Dean argued his predictions will prove accurate over time.

These claims come after a "time traveler" from the Year 4413 made a terrifying claim about the future of humanity.

• 'Time traveler' from Year 6000 makes chilling AI claim with photo from the future
• NASA-backed doomsday warning from Stephen Hawking could happen soon
• "China's Nostradamus" terrifying warning about how US-Iran War will end

The math checks out! It's theoretically possible.

He said: "I saw a bunch of questions asking if there are going to be any wars in the future. I can tell you that there will be no major wars, and when the aliens come in 2028, they will usher in a state of peace and prosperity. People will realize they are not so different, and the entire world will unite," reports the Daily Star.

Humanity's descendants will also embrace a single universal religion, which Mr. Dean asserted will have replaced all existing faiths by 2033. He refused to share any details about the religion, fearing it might cause a temporal paradox.

The self-proclaimed time traveler then claimed that time travel technology becomes public knowledge in 2028, along with revelations about extraterrestrial life forms beyond our planet.

• What do we want? Time travel! When do we want it? Uh, it doesn't really matter because, paradoxically, once we have it, we will always have had it, going anywhere in time.
• Source: 'Time traveler' from 2033 shares year aliens will make contact and it's soon (MSN)
• 'Time traveler' from 2033 shares year aliens will make contact and it's soon (AOL)
• Time travel PROOF: Time traveller from 2033 reveals shock predictions of future | Express.co.uk
• The Truth of Rebirth: And why it matters for Buddhist practice

Time travel in religion

What's real, how can we know? Practice

Some ancient accounts feature characters who appear to leap forward in time. In Buddhism's Pāli canon, the Payasi Sutta ("Payasi Discourse") describes how the disciple Ven. Kumara Kassapa explains to a skeptic that time flows differently on different planes of existence, particularly the long-lasting heavenly realms [4].

Christian time jumping with Rip VW

Drink and idle hands make for sleepiness.

American and European Christians (with a capitalist work ethic to teach) persistently recount the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch American man with a habit of avoiding work. Rip lives in a village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains years before the American Revolution. 

One day, he goes squirrel hunting in the mountains with his dog, Wolf, to escape his wife's irritation.

You're off your rocker, old coot! - No, I'm not!

When evening comes, he hears a voice calling his name and finds a man dressed in old-fashioned Dutch clothing, carrying a keg of alcohol. Rip helps the man carry his burden to a cleft in the rocks from which thunderous noises are emanating; the source proves to be a group of bearded men wearing similar outfits playing ninepins.

Hinduism derives from Vedas

In Hinduism's Vishnu Purana we find the story of Raivata Kakudmi (son of Revata), who visits the God Brahma in a certain heaven then returns to Earth to find that many ages have elapsed [2, 3]. King Kakudmi is a king often featured in Hindu literature. He is described as the king of Kushasthali, the son of Revata [1] and the father of Revati, the consort of the deity Balarama. His account is given within texts such as the Mahabharata, the Harivamsha, the Devi Bhagavatam, and the Bhagavata Purana.

 

Time traveler Darryl Dean reveals the future of India in 2060

The Japanese legend of "Urashima Tarō," first recorded in the Manyoshu, tells of a fisherman who visits an undersea palace for three days, only to return and find that centuries have passed and his world is gone [5].

• This should be compared to Middle Length Discourse 50 (MN 50), where Ven. Maha Moggallana describes mermaids ("sea nymphs") dancing in dazzling undersea palaces, which he can see through his highly developed psychic powers but which has not made sense to scholars and readers ever since his comments were written and included in the Pali canon: "In the middle of the ocean/There are mansions aeon-lasting, Sapphire-shining, fiery-gleaming/With a clear translucent luster,/Where iridescent sea-nymphs dance/In complex, intricate rhythms."

Jewish time travel?

In one Jewish tradition, the Prophet Mo (Moses) is transported by one of his tribal Gods to the study hall of Rabbi Akiva, where he is confused by the future evolution of Jewish law.

Another Talmudic story features Honi HaMe'agel, a 1st-century BCE miracle worker who sees a man planting a carob tree that will take 70 years to bear fruit. Honi falls asleep and awakens 70 years later to find the tree fully grown and its fruit being harvested by the man's grandson [6, 7].

In Islam, the Quran (Koran) tells of the Seven Sleepers, a group of monotheistic (more likely henotheistic) young men who sought refuge in a cave to escape persecution. As they slept, their preferred God preserved them for centuries. When they awake, they discover that the world around them has changed. This narrative, found in the Quranic Surah Al-Kahf, describes divine protection and time suspension [8, 9, 10]. More

Rip Van Winkle (continued)

Actual photo of Rip, 1896 (JJ)

Not asking who these men are or how they know his name, Rip joins them in drinking from the keg he has helped carry and soon becomes so drunk that he falls asleep. He awakens on a sunny morning, back at the spot where he first saw the keg-carrier, and finds that many drastic changes have occurred:

• His beard is now a foot long and grey,
• his hunting musket is badly deteriorated, 
• his dog Wolf is nowhere to be found.

Returning to his village, he discovers it to be larger than he remembers and filled with people in unfamiliar clothing, none of whom recognize him. When asked how he voted in the election that has just been held, he declares himself a loyal subject of King George III, unaware that the American Revolutionary War has taken place in his absence.

Why is this fiction so popular in the US?

He learns that many of his old friends either were killed in that war or have left the village and is disturbed to find a young man who shares his name, mannerisms, and younger appearance.

A young woman states that her father is Rip Van Winkle, who has been missing for 20 years, then an old woman recognizes him as Rip. The young woman and the young Rip are his children, and the former has named her infant son after him as well.

Rip discovers that his wife has been dead for some time but is not saddened by the news. He learns through a village elder that the men he met in the mountains are said to be ghosts of the crew of the Dutch East India Company ship Halve Maen.

His daughter takes him into her home, and he soon resumes his usual idleness (unconcerned by the major political changes during his slumber) and begins telling his story to every stranger who visits the village. The tale is solemnly taken to heart (despite some assuming him to be off his rocker) by the settlers, particularly by the old Dutch inhabitants who say that, whenever thunder is heard, the men in the mountains must be playing ninepins. More

Girl Fight: Japan's Buddhist beauty

Mona Kimura's Flamingo Trick 木村モナ - フラミンゴトリック

(The Bandaid Battalion MMA)

(Behind the Knockout) Mona Kimura, Dakota Ditcheva: finishes that put opponents in hospitals

(Box Man) Mona Kimura vs. disrespectful fighters | knockout comp

Yi Long does it again using his kung fu skills

(Boxing Game) Buddhism in Japan is covered below. But holy cow, it's the animated Chun-Li in real life! Doll Mona Kimura knocks out everyone because she kicks when she does her martial arts in the ring against opponents who walk right into her foot again and again.

Mona Kimura (Japanese 木村 萌那, Kimura Mona, born April 12, 2001) is a Japanese kickboxer and former amateur boxer who is currently signed to K-1. She represented Japan at 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships [2, 3, 4].

• They called Mona Kimura overhyped...then she silenced all
• Kimura's flamingo trick 木村モナ - フラミンゴトリック

Early career

Who, me, a pretty "girlie doll"? We'll see when we get in the ring.

Japanese Buddhist flag flys over Japan

Kimura started training in karate at age 4 and won seven consecutive JKJO All Japan Junior Karate Championships then started boxing in 4th grade [5, 6, 7]. In 2019 she won the JBC Junior Featherweight Championship... Does she love Bruce Lee or even know who he was? Is she into kung fu like the great [not an actual monastery-trained] Shaolin master Yi Long? She must at least know the who the great martial artists who preceded her are. More

Buddhism in Japan

(Chloe VS History) I time traveled to Edo Japan in 1657! (Vlog)

• 

  Beautiful Buddhist Tokyo, Japan (Mt. Fuji)

  Edo (江戸, lit. "Bay-entrance," Romanized as Jedo, Yedo, Yeddo) is the former name of Tokyo. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, Edo developed into a major early-modern urban center with a population that is believed to have exceeded 1 million by the early 18th century — making it, by many estimates, the largest city in the world at the time. More: Edo (Edo period)
• Japanese Zen meditation with Chloe in Edo (1657)

The Buddhist beauty of ancient Japan

The Great Buddha (Amida, Amitabha) (Daibutsu) at Kōtoku-in, Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan (National Treasure) Le Grand Bouddha du Kotoku-in (Kamakura, Japon)

Panoramic view of Tokyo (Bay Entrance), Japan, from the top of the SkyTree (Wiki)

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Daruma doll Indian Bodhidharma

Buddhism was first established in Japan in the 6th century CE [3, 4, 5]. Most of Japanese Buddhists belong to new schools of Buddhism that were established in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) [6]. During the Edo period (1603–1868), Buddhism was controlled by the feudal Shogunate.

The Meiji period (1868–1912) saw a strong response against Buddhism, with persecution and a forced separation between Buddhism and the indigenous shapeshifter (kami) tradition called Shinto (Shinbutsu bunri).

Vowz Band 坊主バンド rock to spread Zen

The largest sects of Japanese Buddhism are Pure Land Buddhism with 22 million followers, followed by Nichiren Buddhism with 10 million believers, Shingon Buddhism with 5.4 million, Zen Buddhism with 5.3 million, Tendai Buddhism with 2.8 million, and about 700,000 for the six old schools established in the Nara period (710–794) [6]. More:

• Buddhism in Japan

Japan at a Crossroads | BBC

(BBC World Service) Crossroads: immigration, identity | Global Eye

Time traveling to ancient Egypt (2400 BC)

(Chloe VS History) I time traveled to ancient Egypt, circa 2400 BCE (Vlog)

Time Travel and Buddhist physics (video)

(Dr. Crazynovich) 10 time travelers who warned us about today (and were right)

Should consciousness follow the body (in lab) or the body follow consciousness (on mat)?

.

Always be mindful of the here and now.

(Dr. Crazynovich) April 19, 2026: John Titor and the Second American Civil War. On November 2, 2000, a user calling himself "TimeTravel_0" appeared on the Time Travel Institute forums and made a claim that should have been dismissed as obvious fiction. He was a soldier from the year 2036, sent back on a military mission to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer that his era needed to debug legacy systems inherited from the late twentieth century. He had been routed through the year 2000 for what he called personal reasons. He was there, he said, to observe the world before it changed. Within weeks, he migrated to the Art Bell forums under a new name, John Titor, and began posting with a specificity that no casual hoaxer has ever sustained for long. He described his time machine in engineering detail.

• Wisdom Quarterly: Buddhist Journal: TIME TRAVEL

COMMENTARY: Mindfulness of Time Travel

Dhr. Seven, Sheldon S., Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly, Ananda, June 10, 2026

Man, Spinoza was as genius as Tesla!

It is deadly easy to laugh at "time travel." But what we are laughing at is not the real thing so much as all our assumptions about it. Is it real? We have reason to think so. Jewish science, for example, in the form of Alvy Einstein, Bibi Spinoza, and Dr. Brucey Goldberg. Alvy drew up no equations making it impossible, did he? Time might go in either direction, and there's the curious case of retrocausation, not to mention "spooky action at a distance," which Alvy doubted, now known as quantum entanglement.

What about God? - Yeah, what about it? When Alvy, who was quite possibly a JewBu, was asked about that it, he stated that his God was Spinoza's God.

• Spinoza's God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?

But who cares about science? If we cared, we might make more of fellow scientists raising an alarm in Pasadena about our planet/plane.

Pederastic Jewish fantasy as Da Costa 'instructs'
little Bibi Spinoza on his lap (Sam Hirszenberg)

However, Bruce Goldberg is the most interesting of the three named, for he says with absolute certainty that not only is time travel possible, we're already doing it. Who's "we"? We as in you and me. What? Here's easy proof. Close your eyes. Close them! Hold perfectly still. More still, samadhi-like stillness, quietude. Feel it?

Right NOW, right here, we're traveling into the future. It's true! Look at the calendar! Look at a watch! Oh, that doesn't count! No proof is good enough, and it never has been. Stubborn!

Which way does time travel? In a spiral?

So we are "traveling" in time, you admit? Yes, look, the real question is, Can we go back (or sideways) in time? That immediately brings up the problem of space, not outer space, not even inner space. I'm talking about the space right here. To go "sideways" is my way of saying bilocation or colocation. For instance, when "now" arrived the first time, I was right here. Might I, on the second occasion, have been somewhere else?

Can I go back to that now and be somewhere else that time? If so, that would be time travel! Can I, or all of us, go back at all? Goldberg says yes, and if you pay him, he'll take you back, so you can shut yer yapper and stop asking all these doubt-filled questions full of investigative energy and childlike curiosity. After all, what will that mean?

• 

  Ven. Thay, what time is it?

  NOTE: If time travel becomes possible, WHEN will we have it? WHEN will it be true? WHEN will I get to do it? - These questions were all answered in an instant when we gathered to protest at JPL's back parking lot near the head of Tovaangar's Gabrieleno Trail (JPL). We were all chanting, "What do we want!?" - "Time travel!" - "When do we want it!?" - "Whenever!" ("Whenever"? Shouldn't we have answered, "NOW!"? which is how protest chants usually go? Well, yes, but as many on the scene argued, it won't matter. Why? It won't matter because WHEN we have time travel (due to our ability to go back or forward to any time that's ever been or will be), we will have had time travel all along, and "all along" includes NOW, which is when we have it, if we EVER get it. Get it? See the problem? If not, refer to the increasingly inaccurate trilogy borne out of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which the genius Douglas Adams discusses the problematic grammar (tense constuctions) of having it.
• [Eckhart Tolle, when is "NOW"? And, by the way, how many "nows" are there?]

Step into the Eternal Now

That is hard to say because it seems to mean various things -- and those things change our view and version of "reality." Sci-fi says going back and changing anything means changing it [and everything else due to the butterfly effect] for everyone.

What if it only changes for us? For example, I said "no." What if I went back in time and were to say "yes"? Just that change, what would it do? Would all the world and universe be different? Would it shatter our dimension? Would I be happy? Would the world regret it? It seems Brucey Baby is talking about not that but jumping timelines to a line (which is to say a time) where I did. And what happened?

I could go see. Would anybody else see? They would in that timeline, but I might like to come back to this timeline. Could I? Yes, Dr. Goldberg says, and he adds that that's what we're doing all the time anyway. (That may be the realization of reality we are not ready for).

• Collected works of Bruce Goldberg (Thrift Books)
• Dr. Bruce Goldberg: Past & Future Life Hypnotherapy

Maybe we should just Be Here Now

So we already are time traveling! Jewish science. Is it a coincidence that those identifying as Ashkenazi Jews are the one who have made these speculations, advancements, and claims?

Maybe, but no one can say anything about it or risk being ostracized, listed, and categorized as an "antidentite." So grin and bear it and not just because our beloved Dr. B. Goldberg of LA is a dentist who may have inhaled some pharmaceutical fumes.

• Reach Tongva Peak (alltrails.com)

Real 'physics' must be tested

Q: Buddhist physics proves? A: Awakening now! - Weightless in space and stuck forever?

Trust physics to jump from speeding truck 😱 - Astronauts stuck floating in space?

Man disappears after showing power of electricity

Wait then, what is "space"?

What is the absence of zero? (Enso)

In Buddhist phenomenology, akasha is divided into "limited space" (ākāsa-dhātu) and "endless [or boundless] space" (ajatākasā) [9]. The Vaibhāṣika, an early school of Buddhist philosophy, holds the view that the existence of akasha is real [10].

Ākāsa is identified as the first arūpa jhāna ("formless/immaterial absorption," dhyana in Buddhism), but that plane (among the four immaterial planes of the 31 Planes of Existence) and that absorption (by which one arrives at it) is usually translated as "infinite space" [11], with WQ preferring "boundless" space.

Two meanings of "space"

Sir, is 'space' fifth great element?

"Space" (Pali Ākāśa, Sanskrit, akasha) holds two primary meanings in Abhidhamma and Abhidharma analysis [12].

There is spatiality, where Ākāśa is defined as the absence that delimits forms. Like the empty space within a door frame, it is an emptiness (hollow) that is shaped and defined by the material boundary surrounding it.

And there is "vast space," where Ākāśa is described as the absence of obstruction (boundlessness), categorized as one of the nityadharmas ("permanent phenomena") because it remains unchanged over time.

Ether (aether) is real

In this sense, it is likened to the discarded Western concept of aether—a real but scientifically rejected immaterial, bright, lminous "fluid" (possibly like the Bible's "waters above" the firmament) that supports the Four Great (material) Elements (Buddhism's mahābhūta).

• These "elements" (dhatus) are actually four major qualities of matter or materiality understood as various particles (RUPA-kalapas), exhibiting a predominance of one quality over the others, which amounts to more than a dozen major expressions placed for simplicity into four big categories.

• 

  Now listen up. This is verified Buddhist science.

  BUDDHIST "PARTICLE" PHYSICS: A rupa-kalapa or "form particle" is a "corporeal group," a "material unit" that designates a combination of several physical phenomena constituting a temporary, flowing, functional unity.
• Therefore, for instance, inanimate or so-called "dead matter" forms the most primitive group, consisting only of eight physical phenomena. These are called the "pure eightfold unit" or "octad" (suddhatthaka-kalāpa), comprised of: The Four Elements (solidity, fluidity, temperature, motion); color, smell, taste, nutriment (pathavī, āpo, tejo, vāyo; vanna, gandha, rasa, ojā). 
• In The Path of Purification (Vis.M.) and elsewhere, it is also called ojatthamaka-kalāpa, "the octad with nutriment as the eighth factor." The simplest form of living matter is the "ninefold vitality unit" or "life-ennead" (jīvita-navaka-kalāpa), formed by adding "vitality" (jiva) to the octad. Seven decads, or "units of ten" (dasaka-kalāpa), are formed by adding to the ninefold unit one of the following corporeal phenomena: HEART (citta, hrdayam, the physical seat of mind) [the physical seat of consciousness, not formally declared by the Buddha but understood to be located near the physical heart at a tiny spot at the upper part of it where it exhibits greenish hue and mirror-like function, reflecting conscious experience, which may sound preposterous but is personally verifiable by meditative-scientists, as are all of the claims made in this physics section], sex, eye, ear, nose, tongue, or body.
• See Vis.M. XVIII, 4; Compendium of Buddhist Philosophy (PTS), p. 164, 250; Atthasālini Tr., II, 413f. Source

Oh, to know the world as the Buddha knew it!

Ether's radiant quality (aether meaning "brightness") often serves as a metaphor for pure luminous (or original) mind or buddhahood, which is described as shining like the sun or space.

In Buddhist samatha meditation, ākāśa is significant in the context of the sphere of boundless/infinite space (ākāśānantyāyatana), the first of the four immaterial absorptions (arupa-jhanas or dhyānas) [12].

Philosophically, ākāśa is considered one of the uncompounded phenomena (asaṃskṛtadharmas) in six Buddhist schools, including the defunct Sarvāstivāda and Mahāsāṃghika, and later the Yogācāra. However, three other schools, including the extant Theravāda, reject this interpretation [12]. More

• Science: Physicist discovers 'paradox-free' time travel
• Assassinated (or disappeared) David Wilcock asks, Is TIME TRAVEL real? How?
• Time Travel True Stories: Amazing Real Life Stories in the News (Books 1 & 2 by Richard Bullivant)
• See also Ākāśagarbha – a bodhisattva associated with akasha
• "Akashic Records" is a term referred to in Theosophy, Anthroposophy, and New Age thought, mainly thanks to America's "Sleeping Prophet" Edgar Cayce (A.R.E.)
• Idealism in Vedic and Buddhist thought
• Ions and Atoms (hydrogen ion in Wikipedia)
• The First Mindfulness Training | Thich Nhat Hanh
• Hridayam in Ayurveda: Nurturing the Emotional and Spiritual Heart
• The best source of evidence for real time travel is future U.S President Andrew D. Basiago

Time in Greek mythology

Chronos and New Year Cupid

Chronos (Ancient Greek Χρόνος, Romanized Khronos, lit. "Time," Modern Greek ['xronos], also spelled Chronus like the Wise Woman The Crone but not the Titan Cronus), is a personification of time in Greek mythology discussed in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature [1]. His consort is Goddess Ananke.*

 

Chronos is frequently confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the Titan Cronus in antiquity, due to the similarity in names [2]. The identification became more widespread during the Renaissance ("Rebirth"), giving rise to the iconography of Father Time wielding the harvesting scythe [3] like Death (Buddhist Mara).

Greco-Roman mosaics depicted Chronos as a man turning the zodiac wheel [4]. He is comparable to the deity Aion (kalpa, aeon) as a symbol of cyclical time [5]. More

• 

  Ananke and her daughters the Fates

  *Goddess Ananke: In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Ananke (Ἀνάγκη, from the common noun "force, constraint, necessity," ἀνάγκη), is a personification of inevitability or compulsion, and is customarily depicted holding a spindle. The births of Ananke and her incestuous brother and divine consort, Chronos (the personification of time), were thought to mark the division between the aeon of Chaos and the beginning of our cosmos. She is considered the most powerful dictator (director) of fate and circumstance. Mortals and gods (devas) alike respect her power and pay her homage. She is considered the Mother of the Fates, hence she is thought to be the only being to overrule their decisions [1] (according to some sources, excepting Zeus also). According to Daniel Schowalter and Steven Friesen, she and the Fates "are all sufficiently tied to early Greek mythology to make their Greek origins likely"[2]. More

Alan Watts: Atomic Theory (Tao/God)

Atoms? Daltons symbols in Western science publication

(Official Alan Watts Org) Atomos ("uncuttable"), smallest material unit

The Buddha: Why time has direction (Upton)

Why does time only move forward? Mystery of tme’s arrow explained - Time Perception Theory

 

Buddhism better than Judaism for science?

It’s time for our newest installment on Paṭṭhāna — the Buddha’s hyper-precise in-depth teachings on cause and effect. For those not yet up to speed on this series, I recommend reading my previous posts. For the sake of today’s installment, the one on different types of “support” is relevant.

Those who have read the previous one on the three different types of support will remember that one of those three is sahajata paccaya — the condition by which things must always arise at the same time.

 

Paccaya is the Pali word for “cause” or “condition.” Jati is the Pali word for “birth.” Saha means “same” — so sahajata means “born at the same time.”

But Patthana goes further. It also offers us purejata paccaya and pacchajata paccaya. The jata part still means “born,” while pure is Pali for “before,” and paccha is Pali for “after” — so here we have “born before” and “born after” conditions.

Why time always moves forward explained by Brian Cox - Why is gravity so strong?

Of these two, purejata paccaya, or “born-before condition,” is intuitively far easier to understand. This is a condition whereby the cause arises before the effect. We can think of countless examples in nature where this condition holds:

• a mother must always be born before her child,
• the fruit tree must always grow before the fruit,
• the river must exist before the fish come and swim in it.

In Abhidhamma terms, an example of this condition would be the various types of sensitive materiality that must already exist in order to support the consciousness that arises dependent on them. For example, eye-sensitive materiality must already exist in order for eye-consciousness to arise.

Another example occurs with some objects of attention. For example, eye-consciousness cannot arise without a visual object to cognize. So the visual object, which will be some kind of light or color, needs to already be existing and well established in order for eye-consciousness to arise. The cause comes first; the result comes after.

Pacchajata paccaya, however, is not as intuitive. Here we have the result arising first and the cause coming later. What?! Backwards [retro-] causality? Really? Well, no, not quite. It’s not really as mystical as it might sound.

Pacchajata paccaya is actually a condition whereby something that arises later is the cause for something that arose earlier to keep on existing. For example, there’s rain that falls after a tree already exists and helps keep that tree alive. Another example would be how children may at times give their otherwise exhausted parents a reason to keep on living, or indeed how students might give their weary teacher a reason to keep on teaching. ;-)

In Abhidhamma terms, we see that the consciousness and mental factors support materiality to keep on existing, even though the materiality existed first and the consciousness and mental factors came along later.

Why time has a direction

The truly powerful thing about these two conditions is that

I study without but not within.

they give a direction to time.

Time, at least in the way we usually think about it, is just a concept. It is something the mind makes up to measure change.

This is easy to understand by choosing any unit of time and thinking about how it is defined.

• One year = the Earth goes round our Sun;
• One day = the Earth completes a full rotation on its axis;
• One second = the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine energy levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom. (Yes, that really is how it came to be defined).

Time is always measured in terms of an amount of change that has happened in that period. Change is what is really happening. Time is the mind’s overlay in order to measure and make sense of the change.

But if time is just a concept, does that mean that we can just choose to freeze or go back or forwards in time? Well, no, because what purejata paccaya and pacchajata paccaya tell us is that some things must always happen first and other things must always happen after.

The flow of change has a direction. It doesn’t just seem to have a direction on a conceptual level. The directionality of time is hard-baked into the building blocks of reality.

So here we have two unassuming conditions having a profound effect on our reality or at least on how we experience it. If reality itself unfolds directionally, what does that tell us about the nature of our own lives?

What things in our lives need to come first? What things must follow after in order to sustain us? Let me know in the comments how you see these two conditions quietly working in daily life and how they are shaping your Dhamma paths.

With metta and gratitude,

• Beth Upton; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly