5.5 What is the meditation on the unity of time?

To ordinary consciousness, time is experienced as yesterday, today and tomorrow. Yesterday is the subject of individual memory and cultural history; tomorrow is the subject of individual and cultural fears and hopes. Ordinary consciousness is rarely located in today, here and now.

Our cultural habits reinforce and reflect this fragmented view, which is a product of the unenlightened mind. This individual and cultural fragmentation of time into the separate elements of past, present and future is real to the unenlightened, but relatively illusory to those who have attained the first stage of enlightenment. In reality, past, present and future function as a unified force.

The purpose of this meditation is to help you realise the unity of time. Practice in this meditation will develop your intuitive understanding of the unity of past, present and future in each set of circumstances you experience now. Understanding the true nature of time, through experience, is within the grasp of anyone who has broken free of the emotional and intellectual personality limitations; that is to say, one who has attained the first stage of enlightenment is in a position to understand that reality always, and only, unfolds now.

The illusion of the past being separate from the present is broken through realising that all of your past, increasingly distilled and refined in meaning as you progress along the path, is retained in your mind. The past is never settled in the relatively enlightened mind; its meaning and significance are continuously being understood in new and wider contexts, as awareness unfolds in the face of reality. Karma is the link incorporating the past into the present: what occurs now, spontaneously, is the karmic outcome of your previous choices.

The illusion of the future being separate from the present is broken through realising that the future, in its full potential, is inherent in seed form in the present moment. To the relatively enlightened mind, the future is beheld as unfolding from the potential of the present; its potential meaning and significance is continuously understood in new and wider contexts. Karma is the link incorporating the future into the present: what will occur, spontaneously, will be the outcome of present thoughts and actions.

The present, incorporating past and future, unfolds spontaneously and uncontrollably, according to the implicate laws inherent in conditioned existence. To the relatively enlightened person, awareness unfolds spontaneously, ever spiralling outwards in the face of reality. Each moment is understood and experienced simply and directly, on its own terms.

Meditate long and hard on the unity of time. Time is one of the key conditions you must understand, through experience, before you can attain the final stage of enlightenment. Once you have mastered this meditation you are in a position to understand the true nature of time: which is that you, your thoughts and all of conditioned existence, unfold, now, in the face of consciousness.