It seems to me that there are at least three “dimensions”: expanse, quality, and time. It is normal to note the three directions of expanse and one direction of time while leaving quality merely implied. This works to some extent, or towards certain ends. But concerning conscious experience, the standard approach tends to be reductionist or inaccurate. All kinds of interesting scientific conundrums arise about how to measure experience when this approach is used that are commonsensical or everyday from a subjective viewpoint.
Concerning an experience of integrated consciousness, this quizzical method of raising conundrums often works against a feeling of completeness or solidity or profundity. One way of bringing integration back into awareness is to quiet or focus the attention to a single point. In one sense, this is a method which sets aside awareness of expanse–for the moment. These moments often strike people as “timeless” as well as “expanseless” (although no one says they feel expanseless). The qualities or resonating feeling-tones which linger beyond the extent of these moments is very interesting, but I’ll set that aside for now.
Besides the possibility of one-pointed attention, it is possible to develop a perspective, or view, that works a little differently concerning time. “Mindfulness” is a popular term in psychology right now, and though it is described in many ways, I will describe it here as momentary attention. If one normally thinks of time as an arrow extending into the past and future, then mindfulness essentially cuts that line into an infinite number of slices and allows one to focus attention on the present “slice”. The geometrical analogue to these moments would look like a point on our timeline. Mindfulness, then, frees one’s attention from concerns of the past and future. As attention is focused on the present–with worries set aside momentarily–it is possible to experience clarity, serenity, or appreciation without expectation. One method of meditating is to allow one’s attention to return to this present instant. In doing so, we release ourselves from being overly caught up in planning or remembering.
So we have already mentioned momentary or instantaneous time and also linear time. When we trace linear time, we can also trace purpose and causation, so linear time allows us to create certain types of meaning and understanding. There is also a sense of time as circular or cyclical. Every day, people wake up, eat at various times if they can, breathe, eliminate wastes, blink, etc. Every year goes through similar cycles or seasons. These cycles or repetitions bring us certainty. Even though we don’t know what this spring will bring our way, we know spring is coming. Repetition also helps us understand through practice. Practice allows us–by sustaining an awareness of purpose–through repetition, to develop competency at various activities. We combine competency with expectation in planning goals and intentional purposes. In this way, cycles are not separate from linearity–both are aspects of how we experience time. We can also understand moments or instants within these line fragments and cycles, so one-pointedness is never apart from linear or circular experiences of time.
Besides the three types of time mentioned so far, there is arguably a fourth. Perhaps the best way to describe this type of time is as “eternity”. Some people are used to thinking of eternity in a linear sense: beginning at the first point on a line and extending all the way to the end of that line (if there is one). Some people believe circularity is eternal: a circle begins at any point on the circumference and continues “forever”, complete in itself. Others speak of the “eternal now” as if the present is the only time that exists. Each of those perspective have their value, and I would challenge people to consider another perspective on eternity.
This may seem either impossible to conceive of or absurd, but this consideration offers multiple different ways of creating meaning, balance, and centeredness. (Tangentially, we could refer to special relativity to an extent by asking: what is the speed of existence? How quickly does the universe move through time? From the inside of the universe, is that movement measurable? Is such a question meaningful?) Consider that eternity may be a concept and an experience that brings objectivity and subjectivity together.
Eternity integrates a linear understanding of forever, a circular understanding of completeness, and also the recognition that now is “all there ever is”. Eternity is the universe of time. In the same sense that an entire ocean is made of many water particles, many streams flowing into and through it, and that water takes on different qualities as ice or clouds but is still water, eternity is the understanding that all time is “wet”. All time has the same basic essence. (If it does not, it becomes difficult to even call it a dimension in the conventional sense.)
The difficulty with this concept of eternity is that it also seems to include all space or expanse. It seems that the nature of time is so flexible as to present in any manner imaginable and probably a few ways that are not imaginable. This concept, then, squishes out at the edges or appears to have no edges whatsoever. That is how I would suggest thinking of eternity: no edges whatsoever. We can call this oneness if that is more comforting, but I prefer eternity since oneness implies two-ness or duality.
With this understanding, we can see that we meet in oneness, in integrity. This concept, along with every other, simply doesn’t enter into one-pointed awareness. Since eternity is all time, moments of one-pointed awareness are eternity. Upon leaving these moments of one-pointed awareness, most people feel that something “special” happened because the resonating feeling-tones “enlighten” subsequent awareness. My point in writing of four times is that this awareness is both special and everyday. It is always “here”, always available, but we learn to access one-pointedness through practice. We train our awareness or attention by particular methods.
The ways in which many past teachers have taught those methods and the means by which people become competent in those methods can separate motivated individuals from others. In the spirit of respecting difference and commonality simultaneously, it can be helpful to have concepts that fit our experiences. Having adequate concepts--in the moments where we lack certainty or focus or a feeling of serendipity–can help us benefit from practicing methods that help us achieve one-pointed awareness as well as achieving other goals. In this manner and with such an understanding, it is possible to encounter each and every edge either with individual purpose or with a no-edges attitude.
What is it like to think eternal thoughts? Eternity includes, embracing even every imaginable type of exclusion. To the extent that our awareness excludes, we are not thinking eternally. Just as it becomes impossible to separate subjectivity from objectivity, it becomes impossible to separate our thoughts from our bodies, our bodies from each other, ourselves from our planet, our planet from the entire universe, past and future and now, etc. What is it like to imagine reality?
Copyright 2007 Todd Mertz