Dynamics of Time and Space: Transcending Limits of Knowledge (Time, Space, and Knowledge Series)

Rating:
Summary: A City of Tiny Lights...
Review: Dynamics of Time and Space is a departure from the earlier TSK books stylistically. For me, it's a bit less satisfying or stimulating than Love of Knowledge or Knowledge of Time and Space. Readers turne doff by those books may wish to give this "space" a shot; it's a bit lighter and reads less like French philosophy or anything avant-garde.

Here, Tarthang Tulku uses light as a metaphor for knowledge and describes it a characteristic of being both as time and space. This does not necessarily feel New-Agey, but it's possible that those with a New Age bent )or a charismatic Christian background) will feel more at home here than elsewhere in the TSK books I've studied so far. For the sake of variety and interdisciplinarity, I'll share here some of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's ideas on the relationship between light and being that may be a good way into Dynamics for you:

"Instead of being one with space, we feel solid space as a separate entity, as tangible. This is the first experience of duality-space and I, I am dancing in this space...Duality means `space and I,' rather than being complete one with the space. This is the birth of `form,' of `other." Then a kind of blackout occurs, in the sense that we forget what we were doing. There is a sudden halt, a pause; and we turn around and `discover' solid space, as though we were not the creators of all that solidity. There is a gap. Having already created solidified space, then we are overwhelmed by it and begin to become lost in it. There is a blackout and then, suddenly, an awakening." (pp.123-124, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism).

The question, then: what is that gap? Is the gap the same as the blackout? What has this to do with light?

Inquire within and without, as they say...

Rating:
Summary: Mind Candy
Review: Tarthang Tulku brilliantly guides the reader on a philosophical exploration of time, space, and knowledge. Tulku uses a bridge of reason to cross the semantic gap that occurs when translating Eastern metaphysics to the language of Western intellectuals. The logical constructs are supplemented by exercies in visualization capable of enriching the reader's understanding on a profound experiential level. This book is pure mind candy.

Rating:
Summary: Mind Candy
Review: Tarthang Tulku brilliantly guides the reader on a philosophical exploration of time, space, and knowledge. Tulku uses a bridge of reason to cross the semantic gap that occurs when translating Eastern metaphysics to the language of Western intellectuals. The logical constructs are supplemented by exercies in visualization capable of enriching the reader's understanding on a profound experiential level. This book is pure mind candy.