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inquiry based practice
December 2009 
Time is Our Life - Unit 3, Week 6
Davidu
So while I was 'freezing' experience by 'coming-out' as an identity located here, I was also alternately relaxing or releasing that identity and its location, by returning to the edge of the future with an open and welcoming attitude toward the unknown. By taking a perspective at the open edge of the future, self-projecting concerns into the future were halted, and the cycle of reaching back to the past that fed into the present was stopped, at least long enough for me to see what was happening. The present, thus, proceeded openly, without the ownership and location that normally comes from triangulating between me, the past, and the imagined future.
In terms of my experience, employment of this new metaphor at 'the edge of the future', and its shift of attitude toward the future's open potential - the 'future infinitive', (and not projecting ideas into it), in a sense time was restored to time. My exercise of looking over the contours of the land became a flow that did not depend on moments. Experience was actually more fundamentally prior, and time was a dynamic continuum. The 'now' was widened or expanded between alternating incidents of 'coming-out' and 'freezing' time by means of location and distance, and then, receding into time's flow by relinquishing them. Here was a modulation of focus, present to both the self's 'coming-out' tendency as well as the melting of its frozen positions. In a sense the now contained the past and the present, and the future-infinitive provided the open, potential of the not-known. And it was from this source the sense of aliveness came from the future, filling the present to the brim.
As Tarthang Tulku says:
"Without ever taking form, the unrestricted dynamic of future time manifests in the non-arising of obstacles that might hinder the 'coming to the present' of events in time. Time presents experience in a perfect neutrality, allowing for boundless possibilities, including those that express our highest aspirations. Through the availability of the future, there is no interruption or discontinuity, no resistance to be overcome, no delay or impediment.
We have learned to consider this unfettered present arising as natural to being. Can we instead allow ourselves to feel grateful for this offering of time? If so, we may discover in this ongoing, unexamined dynamic a gateway to the future infinitive.
Instead of somehow passing on substance to the present, the future sustains the present through its coming. Though this ‘coming' never arrives, its dynamic contributes the charged ‘field' within which the aliveness of present experience can unfold. " DTS p.95-96
PRACTICE NOTES TABLE OF CONTENTS
Fall 2008 - Unit One: Inquiry, Space
October 6 - December 5, 2008
Davidu
1. Layers of Mind with TSK
2. Exploring Layers of Mind with TSK
3. Space of Memories of Layers and Contexts
4. Expanding with TSK
5. Expanding - Revealing the Field
6. Condensing Experience with TSK
7. Week 7, Generating Space
8. Tracing the Tendency toward Solidity
Balder
1. Layers of Mind (TSK Practice Notes)
2. Deepening Layers of Mind
3. Week Three: Exploring Space and Form
4. Week Four: Expanding Layers of Mind
5. Subject-Object Reversal (TSK Class 9)
Debyemm
1. Layers of Mind (TSK Practice Notes)
Winter 2009 - Unit Two: Thoughts, Stories, Self
January 12 - March 13, 2009
Davidu
1. TSK Course Two - Time (Thoughts, Stories, Self)
2. Week Two - Thoughts that Establish
3. I'm Telling (TSK Unit 2, Week 3)
4. Unit 2, Week 4 - Defining Stories
5. Models, Stories and Self - Week 6
6. The Founding Story of the Self (week 7)
7. Imposing Reality & the Cycle of Seeing, Week 9
Balder
1. TSK Online Course (Unit 2)
2. Watching Thoughts (TSK Class 2, Unit 2)
3. Telling Stories (TSK Unit 2, Week 3)
4. Telling Stories 2 (TSK Unit 2, Week 3)
5. Personifying Thoughts, Embodying Space (TSK Unit 2, Week 5)
Starlight
1. Adventures with Time, Space, Knowledge
2. Noticing Thoughts - TSK Exercise
3. once upon a time...tsk exercise
4. restoring multidimensionality...tsk exercise week 4
5. Memories, Models, Stories, Immediate Experience...TSK Exercise...
6. self interpretation...models...tsk exercise...
7. core self...tsk exercise...wk 7
8. self and world given...tsk exercise...wk. 8
9. Creating My Reality...TSK Exercise...wk 9...
Spring 2009 - Unit Three: Conducting Time and Knowledge
March 30 - May 29, 2009
Davidu
1. Objects of Desire - TSK Class 3, Unit 1
2. The Edge of the Future - Class 3, Unit 2
3. How Time Recreates - Class 3, Week 4
4. Time is Our Life - Unit 3, Week 6
5. My Summary of the TSK Class
Starlight
1. Objects of Desire...TSK class 3...unit 1...
2. on the edge of time...tsk exercise class 3...wk 2...
3. Time...Past...Present...Future...wk 3...
4. Opening up to Time...TSK exercise...class 3...wk 4...
5. Unending Flow of Time...class 3; wk 6...
6. Footprints in the Sands of Time...TSK exercise, wk 7...
7. Time Conducting Time...TSK Exercise...wk 8...
Access: Public
“So while I was 'freezing' experience by 'coming-out' as an identity located here, I was also alternately relaxing or releasing that identity and its location, by returning to the edge of the future with an open and welcoming attitude toward the unknown. By taking a perspective at the open edge of the future, self-projecting concerns into the future were halted, and the cycle of reaching back to the past that fed into the present was stopped, at least long enough for me to see what was happening. The present, thus, proceeded openly, without the ownership and location that normally comes from triangulating between me, the past, and the imagined future.
In terms of my experience, employment of this new metaphor at 'the edge of the future', and its shift of attitude toward the future's open potential - the 'future infinitive', (and not projecting ideas into it), in a sense time was restored to time. My exercise of looking over the contours of the land became a flow that did not depend on moments. Experience was actually more fundamentally prior, and time was a dynamic continuum. The 'now' was widened or expanded between alternating incidents of 'coming-out' and 'freezing' time by means of location and distance, or receding into time by relinquishing them. Here was a modulation of focus, present to both the self's'coming-out' tendency as well as the melting of its frozen positions. In a sense the nowcontained the past and the present, and the future-infinitive provided the open, potential of the not-known. And it was from this source the sense of aliveness came from the future, filling the present to the brim.”
WOW…this was right on it David! Beautifully expressed! There were so many times when 'both' were happening simultaneously and I actually was able to notice the 'freezing' and then the 'relaxing'…then of course there were also times when there was just the continuum of times dynamic that just seemed to go on and on and on within the joy of being…I love that last sentence…'filling the present to the brim'…would just add that oh how it overflows too…lol…it is so nice to know that we are experiencing these things together…sorta…much love and joy to you, always, star…
Thanks Star,
It makes you think doesn't it? I does me. The kind of knowing that's going on when the self is not coming-out and freezing time… what is that? Is it a knowing that is not owned by the one who knows? I think so. :-)
D
the 'one who knows' is not a 'one who knows'; not a 'self' that is NOT'coming out' and/or 'freezing' time… but IS the 'active knowing' of BEING… LOL…that is as close to an explanation of experiencing as I can come…much joy to you, always, star…
Yep! :-) I mentioned here, in an exercise Trancendence of Pointings…
And I was reminded of the following passage from KTS pp. 423-4:
You can actually observe this process happening. Observing it was like putting my finger in a wall socket and receiving a charge. All of a sudden it dawned on me the 'self' is a process, a habitual series of activities that consolidates and situates us subjectively. But when you observe the process you widen your perspective to encompass more than just the habit. New knowing is, available, time is not truncated the way it was.
Not that I've mastered it, just glimpsed it now and then…
Carry on sister! :-)
D
I love this entry…I love dancing on the edge of Time with you…I am so amazed at the depth you capture in this…everytime I read it, it dances itself alive into levels of understanding…there are so many subtle pointers within this as well…just like in Tarthang's writings, this dances itself in myriad ways each time I come back to it presenting…
Your writing is lovely David…so filled with ripples, alive with knowledge…
lj&*k…
Thanks Star,
It's nice to know someone sees what I'm trying to describe…which is my way of saying what Rinpoché is describing. :-)
It's as though he has gone ahead into the black cavern, and left a flashlight and his descriptions of what he found along the way. And we are free to follow behind and discover for ourselves our own journey. The beauty is we can compare notes.
Best
D
but I hear LOTS of YOUR own journey in your writing…NOT TT's…but DAVIDS…
and I thank you for sharing that…I do also appreciate that you include quotes from the books…they are always wonder-filled to read…but your own journey is delightful as well…
love and joy*