THE JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY AND PARANORMAL STUDIES
Philosophical Discussion
The Psychical Experience of Time Described in the
Tibetan Book of the Dead:
Mathematical Definitions and Practical Examples
by Robert G. Howard, PhD and Daniel R. Kelleher, MD
(Editor's Note: This is a comprehensive, well written, albeit somewhat difficult
to understand, theory of the afterlife first proposed in the Tibetan Book
ofThe Dead. Nevertheless, it might not be the viewpoint of certain readers of
the Journal, Since the Journal does not have any official religious viewpoint
on life after death, it is being presented here. Each reader can take out of it
what he/she can or desires^
Abstract: Viis article describes a psychic theory of life and death proposed by
Tibetan researchers. Long ago, the Tibetans useda systematic, pragmatic approach
to study the psychic event of death and rebirth. Although it is not considered a
scientific approach, it produced a detailed description of these psychic phenomena.
This article proposes to explain the Tibetan research with an expansion oftlie experience
oftime. Guidance to this expanded experience oftime is through mathematics,
through certainty, not skepticism, after comprehending the expanded dimensions
of time mathematicnlly. An intelligible and mathematical description is presented
of the time dimensions in three psychic states, Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya, and
Dharmakaya. Then, expanding the psychic awareness byfollaioing tlie method of
the enlightened Buddlui, the reader will also gain the experience of the Nirmanakaya
state and its use of two dimensions of time.
Origin of the Mental Construct of Three Time Dimensions
Long ago, the Tibetans used a systematic, pragmatic approach to study
the psychic event of death and rebirth. Although it is not considered a
scientific approach, it produced a detailed description of these psychic
phenomena. The description was published as the Tibetan Book ofthe Dead. It
was composed long ago by Padmasambhava. The Dalai Lama recently commissioned
a translation, which describes three states of Being. The ancient
Tibetans used the mental construct of three time dimensions in the three
states of Being, This publication was based on experiments and experiences
with death and dying over an era of hundreds of years. Questions about
death and dying have haunted people for thousands of years. Specialist
Tibetans answered these questions in great detail. Examining the answers
is a proper application of the heuristics of science and mathematics.
Three States of Being
There are three separate states of Being labeled Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya,
and Dharmakaya.
These states "are related to our natural states and to the ...qualities of
full enlightenment."
{Padmasambhava, 2006, p. xix). A person or entity in each of these states
has a worldview. This article mainly discusses the time dimensions of the
25
Psychical Experience of Time Described in the Tibetan Book
worldviews. More definitions are provided in the Definitions endnotes.
The curious reader can absorb the concepts faster by jumping ahead to the
section "Examples of the application of the second dimension of time." See
Definition endnotes for particular meanings as used in this article.
Skepticism could obscure the comprehension of the three states of Being
and the concepts of time used in these states.
Certainty of the Times of the Three States Removes Skepticism
One method to bar skepticism of the three states is given by Klein in
"Certainty, a Refutation of Skepticism." It dissolves the skeptical liindrances
of the following reservations.
1. How does the author know about these states?
2. How does the reader know that the author knows these states?
3. How does the reader know the evidence provided by the author
proves he knows these states? (Klein (1981) p. 9-199)
Three mental preparations are necessary to accept and to use the three
time dimensions. Replacing skepticism with open-minded certainty is
one preparation. Accepting the limitations of the mind is another, which is
described below. Another is pre-perception.
Pre-perception of the Times of the Three States *
These are states, which must be experienced to be accurately comprehended.
To start the assimilation of the three states, one must have some
method of grasping the initial intellectual pre-perception described by
William James.
"The IDEA is to come to the help [in comprehending the new idea] and make
it more distinct. It may come with effort.. .and is ... our attention's strain. Let
us show how universally present in our acts of attention is this anticipatory
thinking of the thing to which we attend .. .'pre-perception' is the designation
for this imagining of an experience before it occurs." (James,1992, p.223).
This pre-perception is the second preparation, which aids in bootstrapping
the whole new idea into the reader's ken. Other preparations will be
exposed below. Tlie pre-perceptions will allow the reaaer to absorb and use
the three times and the three states whenever encountered. The following
sections aid the reader's pre-perception. Here is the intellectual pre-perception
of the Nirmanakaya state. The Nirmanakaya state can be experienced
during the bardo interval between rebirth and death.
I
Nirmanakaya
At a time between the death Reality and rebirth, the dead entity begins a
bardo interval in the embryo, "assumes a grosser physical existence culminating
in actual rebirth into our normal waking experience...," which has
the [potential of experiencing the] Nirmanakaya; translated as "the Buddha
Body of Emanation." (Padmasambhava, 2006, p. xx). This Nirmanakaya
interval is the state of being in the NOW of any individual enlightened
person. For a trained person, the Nirmanakaya state could be what we
currently call enlightened waking consciousness. AlUiough enlightened,
it cannot perceive Reality (Dharmakaya below) because of the limitations
of a human body and brain. It is thus limited in comprehension of Reality.
Reality and this limitation will be addressed below.
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THE JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY AND PARANORMAL STUDIES
The Nirmanakaya state is influenced by karmic wind, physical and
spiritual laws. It is a state of becoming which exercises willpower, desire,
and habitual tendencies. Becoming is described as a person changing
physical, emotional and mental states as the location of the NOW changes
with respect to an origin in the frame of reference such as moving through
space, XI, X2, X3 as times t4, and t5 pass.
The Nirmanakaya is part of the observing mental function, which
perceives the body, feelings, mind and mental constructs. It witnesses the
functions of the mind, for example, consciousness of the sense organs,
perception, intellectual manipulation, the arising of subconscious urges,
intuitioa and instincts. It is the essence of the NOW. It is without personality
and often called the primordial Being, Isness, or Suchness. It is the witness
that cannot be witnessed as described in the Upanishads. There are Buddhist
states of Being called the Jhanas and the Supermundane states that allow
the reader to experience the Now as the Nirmanakaya. These methods are
translated by Bhikku Nanamoli and Bhikku Bodhi, in The Middle Length
Discourses ofthe Buddim: Majjhima Nikaya. Examples are the second Jhana is
Being without verbal thought, nor intellection, nor identifying sense data.
The third Jhana has no emotion. The fourth Jhana is Being without pleasure
or pain. There are Supermandane States called Base of infinite Space, Base
of Infinite Consciousness when the state of the NOW is conscious of being
and nothing else. Base of Void, and Base of Neither Perception nor Nonperception.
(Nanamoli and Bodhi, 1995, pp. 899-902)
when a person is in the state without taints, he/she experiences the Nirmanakaya.
It is the state of the NOW which is conscious of being. The person
who is in the Nirmanakaya interacts with other entities such as people. Other
persons can perceive and interact with the physical manifestation of the
person in the Nirmanakaya state. There is no particular evidence available
for people to know that a person is in the Nirmanakaya state. Zen Masters
or others who have experienced the Nirmanakaya may be able to detect
the state in another person. For this purpose, Zen Masters have developed
ways to test a person in order to gain evidence of the Nirmanakaya.
The objective of this article is to explain the view of time used in the three
separate states of Being labeled Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Dharmakaya.
The language of mathematics is best suited to describe time.
Description of Time Dimensions Requires the Language of Mathematics
Jeffreys and Jeffreys explained the use of mathematical models in Methods
ofMathematical Physics Geffreys and Jeffreys,1950, p.l). To understand the
relation of mathematics to physics, we start with the notion of numbers.
Numbers include all real, irrational, negative, positive, integers, and ratios.
VVe accept arithmetic and algebraic formulas as correct under specific conditions
so that the results are correct when any numbers are substituted for
the symbols in the formulas.
The use of mathematics in science is that of a language, in which we
can state relationships too complicated to be described, except at inordinate
length, in ordinary language. The rules satisfied by the symbols are the
grammar of the language. The language has two conditions. It must be possible
to say what we want to say; it must have sufficient generality. It must
be self-consistent so that starting from the rules, it must be impossible to
27
Psychical Experience of Time Described in the Tibetan Book
deduce anything that is declared false by the rules. However, the proposition
that a given system of axioms for mathematics is consistent cannot be
proved by methods using only the rules of the system. The language has
symbols for the things we need to discuss and for the processes that we
carry out. So the fundamental notion of measurement corresponds closely
to that of addition. Rules govern the use of germane measurement units
and the concept of dimensions. The rules of algebra are modified for use
with measurement units, dimensions, and other issues relevant to science.
The other arithmetic and algebraic processes and rules correspond to other
physical processes and concepts. However, the proposition that a given
system of axioms for physics is consistent cannot be proved by me&iods
using only the rules or the system.
The science of physics has been built up from many assumptions and
axioms over a long history. The laws of physics are based on successive
approximations. Since tlie physical laws are formulated as models that can
be comprehended by humans, who are limited in ability to experience the
physical world and to invent mental constructs, there will never be exact
formulations. For a given law, each important physicist adds more experiments
and theories so the description of the law becomes successively more
like the underlying truth.
Vector Algebra as a Heuristic for Comprehending the
Times of the Three States
Refer to any algebra book on Cartesian frame of Reference with Three
length Dimensions.
Here is a brief review of vector algebra. A frame of reference is usually
thought of as a box with rectangular sides containing a subject of interest,
such as a moving arrow. Each of the three lengths of the box has a label,
XI, X2, X3 usually x, y, z. A vector is a quantity with the added property
of a direction in tne frame of reference. A unit vector has a scalar length of
one unit. The vector multiplication of one vector by another vector results
in a new vector product pointing in the direction that is at 90" to both the
original vectors being multiplied. Geffreys and Jeffreys ,1950, p.57) There
are many other books teaching vector algebra. The symbol X represents the
operator for vector multiplication. In the following notation, the bar above
a symbol means the symbol is vector
A measured scalar XI is a length in the direction of unit vector,r. Similarly,
a length, X2 is measured in the direction of unit vector,j. And X3 in
the direction oj unit vector,j<, A scalar duration of time, t4, in the direction
of unit_vector,t4. And a scalar duration of time, t5, in the direction of unit
vector,t5. The reader thinks of the papei^with two lengths, one from the
bottom towards the top of thej^age XI i and another sideways from the
left to the right hand edges X2j. Also the hejght above the paper is X3 k in
the direction of unit vector ^ at 90° to both i and j.
Imagine the product of twq_vectors:
iX] = J< equation (1)
Time (t4)
The "reference time" t4 is defined as events changing with respect to
an origin, NOW, of a frame of reference. NOW is defined at the endnotes.
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THE JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY AND PARANORMAL STUDIES
Time, t4 is the change of location of NOW even when XI, X2, X3, are not
considered. In the mental construct, changes in t5 and t6 may be constant
or disregarded for the purpose of aiding the imagination. The reference
time is non-zero; it must change. In matnematics, the "scalar time" t4 is
defined also as a quantity. It describes a NOW that has a duration more
than zero. If scalar time t4 had a quantity of zero then the NOW would not
exist. This is a trivial case, wliich will not be considered. The scalar time t4
quantity changes in a direction with respect to the origin of the frame of
reference. So itjs a vector, t4. Define the unit vector in the reference time
t4 direction as t4.
The direction of_the vector t4 is defined by the vector product of two
space unit vectors, _ _ _
j X k = t4 equation (2)
The direction of t4 is a right angle to both j and k.
Similar definitions are stated of t5 and t6 below
It can be proved that vector algebra is an accurate and sufficient mathematical
framework for describing physical phenomena in times t4, t5,
and t6.
Time (t5)
The "reference time" t5 is defined as events changing with respect to an
origin, NOW, of a frame of reference. It is the change of location of NOW
even when X Y, Z, and t4 do not change. In the mental construct, changes
in t4 and t6 may be constant or disregarded for the purpose of aiding the
imagination. The change in reference time, t5 is non-zero; it must change.
The "scalar time" t5 is defined as a quantity. It describes a NOW that has
a duration more than zero. If scalar time t5 Had a quantity of zero then the
NOW would not exist. This is a trivial case, which will not be coiisidered.
The scalar time t5 quantity changes in a direction with respect to the
origin of the frame of reference. So it is a vector, t5.
Define the unit vector in the reference time t5 direction as t5
Most of the properties of t5 are the same as t4. Except the direction of
the unit vector is defined as
1< X t4 = t5 equation (3)
At a right angle to both R andt4
A person in the Nirmanakaya state easily uses the heuristic of the t5
view.
Most people can use the second time dimension, t5, but are not conscious
of using it unless taught to use t5. It is not unusual to view an event changing
at location XI, X2, X3, and t4 from a frame of reference, XI, X2, X3, t4,
which also includes t5. But people do not realize they are doing this. This
view will be taught below withexamples. See Figure 1: The View of a Four
Dimensional Worldline From a Five Dimensional Reality.
The worldline is the four dimensional description in XI, X2, X3, t4, of an
event. The worldline is viewed from t5 in a frame of reference with X, Y, Z,
t4, t5. The worldline cannot be shown properly on a 2 dimensional paper.
However, it is rising above the origin; it is not in the plane of the paper.
Because the reader looks at the paper from some inches away, the worldline
appears to be projected on trie flat paper. The reader is encouraged to
try this mental experiment of turning tne point of view 90". Examples for
29
Psychical Experience of Time Described in the Tibetan Book
t4
Olds
Tbe directioa of tS is rising up froax
the origin ofNOW toward the Reader
Figure 1 The \^ew of a Four
Dimensional worldline form
a Five Dimensional Reality.
The black do is the origin,
the location of the Reader's
NOW or orientation of per-
ception.
practicing the mental experiment are given below.
The living body, brain and mind is limited to the Nirmanakaya up to
the time of death. When the person's body dies, the Nirmanakaya is free
of the body and brain.
Time (t6)
The Nirmanakaya entity turns its view 90* and takes on the view of
the Sambhogakaya. The "reference time" t6 is defined as events changing
with respect to an origin, NOW, of a frame of reference. It is the change
of location of NOW even when X Y, Z, t4, and t5 do not change. In the
mental construct, changes in t4 and t5 may be constant or disregarded for
the purpose of aiding the imagination. The change in reference time, t6 is
non-zero; it must change. The "scalar time" t6 is defined also as a quantity.
It describes a NOW that has a duration more than zero. If scalar time t6
had a quantity of zero then the NOW would not exist. The scalar time t6
quantity changes in a direction with respect to the origin of the frame of
reference. So it is a vector, t6.
Define the unit vector in the reference time t6 direction as t6.
Most of the properties of the unit or direction vector,t6 are the same as
t6 and t5. Except the direction^oj the_unit vector is defined as
t4 X t5 = t6 equation_(4)
At a right angle to both t4 andt5
The members ofthe class of objects viewed in the t6 are probable worldlines
in the future. However at a given quantum of time QT, there is only
a single event where all worldlines converge into the NOW. To get an idea
of the wide range of probable worldlines, consider what is probable. All
the probable future events differentiate one worldline from another, for
example, enquiring as a state of Being (See definition of NOW in endnotes),
eating, dreaming while sleeping, contacting the external world through the
senses, understanding, perceiving, acts of Will, choosing. Choosing is the
distillation of a worldline by an act of free will what to inquire, what to
eat, and so on. Choosing narrows down to one worldline wriat is actually
experienced.
It perceives the set of changes in t5 more clearly than when limited to
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THE JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY AND PARANORMAL STUDIES
the view of Nirmanakaya,
It perceives the changes in life usually associated with t4 from the view
of t5. And it perceives the probabilities in t5 from the view of t6.
The dimension, t6 contains the many probability states of an event,
which is in the future.
The probabilities, "p", of all possible events, of which there are n possible,
at a future time t61 in the measured in the t6 dimension, add up to
1.0, Mathematically,
Spn
1.0 =
When the NOW arrives at a given time, t61, only a single possible event
is observed. The observed event has a probability of 1.0 in t6, stated as,
p=1.0.
See Figure 2: The Five Dimensional Set of Probable Worldlines from the
View of a Six Dimensional Reality
Figure 2 The Five Dimensional
Set of Probable Wirdlines from
the View of a Six Dimensional Reality
The black dot at the origin represents
the location of the NOW, the location
of the Reader in a six dimensional reality.
The dot moves continuously in three
time dimensions.
Directioo of t6 it niing
up bma tbe NOW
origm toward the
reader
14 Boa
_~"SProbBbIe worldlines in t6
before tbe NOW moved
to the preseot origiii
When a person leaves the body and brain behind at death, he or she
experiences the Dharmakaya state of Being.
Sambhogakaya
Some people remain in the Dharmakaya (Realit)') bardo interval after
death. Others continue as follows. Immediately after death, a person becomes
an entity in the state of [pure essence] Reality. "From within this.,.
natural state, [the entity] begins a bardo interval of "perceptual experience;
the phenomenal forms are comparatively subtle and non-substantive.. .this
mode ...is the Buddha body of Perfect Resource (Sambhogakaya)."(Padm
asambhava, 2006, p, xx)
Sambhogakaya is the bardo interval of being in the NOW after the Reality
of death (Dharmakaya) and before the Nirmanakaya state leading to
rebirth. At death, if the dead entity has cultivated the Nirmanakaya state,
and has developed the correct habitual tendencies, it is freed from the
limitations of the human brain and body. It exists in Sambhogakaya, The
view held by the entity has its origin in the Sambhogakaya state. It views
the entire past life in six dimensions, X, Y, 2, t4, t5, t6. It views all probable
future worldlines of existence in the t6 view.
31
Psychical Experience ofilme Described in the Tibetan Book
Ihis focus of The Tibetan Book of the Dead is preparation for death and
acquiring habitual tendencies during life, which will be expressed in the
Sambhogakaya state (Padmasambhava, 2006, pp. 5-196). The Sambhogakaya
state is the essence of a living person; the pure energy of an enlightened
mind but without a physical body.
The dead entity in the Sambhogakaya state is influenced by karmic wind,
habitual tendencies of perception, habitual feeling reactions, delusional
entities, spiritual laws, and some fading memories. Memories are rapidly
fading as the cerebral base disintegrates. It is not affected by physical laws,
or man-made laws. There is no tliinking, cognition, gender, perception,
sense data or language. However, there are length and space perceptions,
and perception ofthree dimensions of time, t4, and t5, t6 that is the subject
of this article. An entity in the Sambhogakaya state easily uses the heuristic
of the t5 view and the t6 dimension. The direction of the t6 unit vector is
given above,
t4 X B = t6 eciuation (4)
The dead entity is in a state of becoming lasting approximately 49 days,
if it does not remain in the Dharmakaya. This is described extensively in
the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Padmasambhava, 2006, pp. 197-316).
Asimplified definition of becoming is changing the location of the NOW,
which is the origin of a frame of reference. The NOW moves through lengths
XI, X2, X3, and times t4, t5, and t6. A general definition is the evolution
into another human body, tlirough rebirth. The Karmic wind is the force of
cause and effect that acts on all entities alive or dead. The entity has Willpower
and desire in the Sambhogakaya state. Willpower is the effort made
by the entity to change its location or other state such as being born in one
of several planes of existence. Habitual tendencies are mainly emotional
reactions or efforts started by Will. Desire is a habitual tendency cultivated
during the living state. The possibilities of Willpower and desire to change
the plane of rebirth is addressed as the solution to the central problem of
evolved enlightened rebirth in the Tibetan book ofthe Dead.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead discusses the transition after life through
death in the Sambhogakaya state and subsequent rebirth into life again. The
cause and effect relationsnips and the choices of the dead entity during this
life and during the Sambhogakaya state results in the dead entity selecting
its next parents and the plane of existence for its next stage of^existence.
If the dead entity chooses a human or animal rebirth, it selects its parents.
The entity enters the embryo in preparation for rebirth. The Sambhogakaya
state ceases during gestation.
The Tibetan Buddhist concept is that the best approximation of Sambhogakaya
that the living mind can invent is a worldview called herein,
"Reader's Nirmanakaya." This is the one objective reality possible to be
known by a living person. It tends to change from year to year as a given
person matures.
Let us define a particular worldview called herein, "Buddha's Sambhogakaya,"
experienced by a person nanied Buddha. Let us propose that
this worldview is the most accurate worldview held by one transcendent
individual even though he was living. The worldview Buddha's Sambhogakaya
is an approximation of Dhamiakaya. The worldview evolved
over time, t4 as Buddha matured.
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As the reader knows from experience, people will argue and refuse to
accept a new idea such as Buddha's Sambhogakaya for an amazing number
of reasons. However, arguing does not change the nature of reality, Dharmakaya
or Sambhogakaya. In fact, arguing may have helped the Buddha
to improve the approximation, Sambhogakaya. Even if no one but Buddha
holds this worldview of Sambhogakaya, it remains the best approximation
to Dharmakaya, It will never be the true Dharmakaya; unknowable to the
human body and brain.
Dharmakaya
"Death is the point at which both the physical and mental fields dissolve
into inner radiance and where both consciousness and energy exist
at their most subtle non-dual levels..This mode is the Buddha Body of
Reality (Dharmakaya)." The Dharmakaya is the ultimate Reality, All That
Is. It can only be comprehended after death, if then, due to the limitations
of the body, brain, and the limited abilit)' to conceive of mental constructs.
If it is possible to understand or experience the Dharmakaya at all, it would
be after the passing at death when the physical and mental fields dissolve
into an ineffable, indescribable state of subtle Isness which can be named
"inner radiance" or "void." The Dharmakaya state does not perceive these
three time dimensions or the three length dimensions. It has no mental
constructs, no identification of length, or time, t4, t5, or t6. It is the primordial
"Buddha Nature" the essence of the enlightened mind merged with
All That Is. It is not obscured by mental constructs or personality. It is not
affected by the physical laws and spiritual laws. It has no physical body but
it has an existence. It is a spiritual entity blended with other non-physical
entities. It is not in a state of becoming; it is uncreated. Thus it is operating
m Truth so to speak, a correct assessment of Reality without the delusions
and Ignorance created by a person in the Nirmanakaya, limited by the
body, brain and mind.
The Limitations on the Mind
Before examples of the time, t5 mental construct can be introduced
below, the reader must admit the limitations on the mind. See Spigelman,
On Despair of hitelligibility. First consider the problem of intelligibility in
physics, much simpler concepts than death and time. "The reaction of most
physicists to the paradoxes and enigmas of quantum theory ... has been
to despair of ever being able to make the theory intelligible" (Spigelman,
1987, p.l3) ^ ^^
Nobel laureate, P.W. Bridgman stated, "Our conviction that nature
IS understandable and subject to law arises from the narrowness of our
horizon... If we sufficiently extend our range, we shall find that nature is
mtnnsically neither understandable nor subject to law." (Bridgman, 1950)
Nobel laureate, R.P. Feynman wrote, "I think it is safe to say that no one
understands quantum mechanics." {Feynmarv 1965).
Responses to the Despair of Intelligibility
"There are three responses to the despair of intelligibility.
•The first is the rejection of the effort to explain, to comprehend... This
attitude has its roots in religion and in practical people who are not inter-
33
Psychical Experience of Time Described in the Tibetan Book
ested in the'why' of the world but only in the'how',..
•The second has been a quest for new modes of understanding in
mysticism."
Unfortunately, the "Western secular thought " does not accept this
second creative response. This rejection by the [dogmatic, fixated thinking
of the] closed mind blocks a greater set or solutions of the problems in the
[psychical researcher's] search for truth.
•The third response is a belief in [a subjective reality in addition to] an
objective reality. Recognizing that observation, measurement, prediction and
control without comprehending [both the subjective and objective reality]
is only technology.,.This requires a 'new simple idea'." In other worcls,
we need an idea that we can comprehend with our limited minds such as
belief in a subjective reality which depends on the observer.' (Spigelman,
1987, p.l3).
Let the reader accept an axiom: The nature of the physical universe
exists. People are not capable of knowing the entire physical universe due
to the limitations of the mind, to limitations on tools such a telescopes, to
limitations on observation of the universe, to limitations on the unknown
parts of the universe that cannot be known. This absolute environment is
designated by Dharmakaya.
An Obstruction to Gaining the Nirmanakaya Worldview is the Assumption
That the Mental Concept is Equivalent to a Transcendent Experience
In spite of the Hope for the First Response to the Despair of intellieibllity,
above, the mind by itself cannot totally comprehend the reasons why and
how the world works. Spiritual experience is also necessary.
Part of the barrier to understanding the truth of the physical universe
is arrogance of believing that the mintf can comprehend the details of the
truth by reason and thinking. The achievable understanding of truth may
be limited to a certain level of understanding, a new simple idea, and no
more. The Nirmanakaya is an experience, not a mental construct that can be
discovered by logic or reading. To achieve the Nirmanakaya worldview, the
heuristic tool is psychic transcendent experience; introspection under the
supervision of a person who lives in the Nirmanakaya state and is capable
of teaching the methods of achieving it.
Consider the barrier thrown up by minds closed to new models, closed
to new experiences of the Nirmanakaya state. Add this to the limitations
of the mind, brain and body. Then the search for truth of Nirmanakaya, or
even arcane physics, is more limited.
Creating an amendment to the theory of dimensions is the intent of
this article. By accepting the proposition of three dimensions of time, the
reader can accept this pnysical description of the world. Simultaneously,
the reader also accepts tne pre-perception of tlie way to experience the
Nirmanakaya.
Guidance to the Nirmanakaya Worldview
The nature of the void or emptiness cannot be described in any language
or mathematics. The Buddha gave explicit instructions about riow an individual
can experience the void (Nanamoli and Bodhi, 1995, pp.965-970)
So the method can be described but not the state, which is experienced. A
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THE JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY AND PARANORMAL STUDIES
clue; an approximation of the Nirmanakaya is the following label, "Emptiness
and inner radiance are inseparable." Can the reader conclude that
achieving new concepts in physics is quite different from the experience
of Nirmanakaya, which is not a concept?
Examples of the Application of the Second Dimension of Time
This introduction leads to the realization of the everyday use of the
second dimension of time.
The following examples describe the reader's observing an event in a
frame of reference, X, Y, Z, t4 from the view of the frame of reference, X,
Y, Z, t4, t5
The Example of the Blur of a Moving Plate
An example of perceiving a long quantum of time, t4 from the view
of reality including t5, is the blur of a moving thing. The blur represents
the locations of the thing, which are within the quantum of time, t4. If the
reader could hold in mind an hour movement of a plate, an hour's liistory
of the plate could be perceived at one t5. This means that the perceiver
would be using both t4 and t5 to make a perception of sense data. See Figure
3 Blur is the Worldline; the Four Dimensional Representation of a Plate
Figure 3 The plaie has 3 dimensions of
length and one extension of lime that is
perceived by the Perceiver as a blur. If
the Perceiver could register one visual
appearance foe an hour, then the blur
would register as an hour long extension
of the plate, ^'i^ l"21 Plae at x 2, y 2.2 2,
t42
Observed from the View of X, Y, Z, t4, t5 toward X, Y, Z, t4 [At end-
note]
The Example Given by William James
"Chapter XVII The Sense of Time... The feeling of past time is a present
feeling...
[Notice it is described as a feeling, not a thought. ]
Our consciousness of time.. .our inner states succeed each other...
between the mind's own changes being successive and knowing their own
succession lies as broad a chasm as between the object and subject of any
case of cognition in the world. A succession of feelings is not a feeling of
succession. And since to our successive feelings, a feeling of their succession
is added, that must be treated as an additional fact requiring its own special
elucidation, which this talk about the feelings knowing their time-relations
as a matter of course leaves all untouched.
35
Psychical Experience of Time Described in the Tibetan Book
If we represent the actual time-stream of our thinking by an horizontal
line, the thought of the stream [the thought of the stream is the second
dimension of time, t5] or of any segment of its length, past, present, or to
come, might be figured in a perpendicular raised upon the horizontal at a
certain point. The length of this perpendicular stands for a certain object
or content, which in the case is the time thought of at the actual moment of
the stream upon which the perpendicular is raised. There is thus a sort of
perspective projection of past objects upon present consciousness, similar
to that of wide landscapes upon a camera-screen.
And since our maximum distinct perception of duration hardly covers
more than a dozen seconds, we must suppose that this amount of duration
is pictured fairly steadily in each passing instant of consciousness by virtue
of some fairly constant feature in the brain-process must be the cause of
our perceiving the fact of time at all. Its content is in a constant flux, events
dawning into its forward end as fast as they fade out of its rearward one
and each of them changing its time-coefficient from 'not yet' to 'not quite
yet' to 'just gone' or 'gone.' The specious present stands permanent like the
rainbow on the waterfall unchanged by the events that stream through it.
Each event retains the power of being reproduced... the reproduction
of an event after it has once completely dropped out of the rearward end is
an entirely different psychic fact from its direct perception in the specious
present. That is the analysis of what happens in reproductive memory, the
recall of dated things. "(James, 1992, pp. 270-271).
The Example of Corporate Stock Price
Consider that there is a chart with stock price for a corporation measured
along the Z axis and the time of the price noted on the t4 axis. At any
moment, t4n, a dot would appear on the criart, which would represent the
price at time t4n. Now turn the chart 90° and a series of dots looking like a
fine would be perceived on the chart. All the prices of the stock, occurring
in t4, would be perceived in a short quantum, At5. See any Stock price vs.
time Chart or refer to Figure 2 and the financial news.
Conclusions
While investigating psychic phenomena of a person in the three states
described, we have abstracted triree different times. The Tibetan Buddhist
masters inherently recognized three different dimensions of time in addition
to three different states of Being. VVe can use these dimensions to calculate
a more accurate worldview. Heisenberg's scrutiny could be leveled at the
findings of the Tibetan book ofthe Dead. The entire fabric presented herein is
intelligible and infallible as required by Heisenberg and Spigelman.
Recommendations
The researcher is encouraged to enlarge his or her psychical research
by incorporating the second dimension of time into his/her worldview.
Tne Nobel prize-winning physicist, Heisenberg, in The Physicist's Conception
of Nature commented that the researcher must examine the means of
investigation, the tools for observations, the assumptions about what can be
inferred from the observations, and the theories that are presented based on
36
THE JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY AND PARANORMAL STUDIES
the components of the investigation. The entire fabric must be intelligible
and infallible {Heisenberg, (1958)). This scrutiny could be leveled at the
findings of the Tibetan book of the Dead^
Endnotes
Dimension
Dimensions abstracted from the observations are mental constructs.
There are three dimensions of length and three dimensions of time. These
may be simply mental constructs. We conceptualize a length of a thing,
which is a separate property from all other physical descriptions of the
thing. Tliis separation is purely a mental tool. A length without a thickness
or a depth has zero thickness and zero depth. Therefore it does not exist
physically. It exists only in the reader's mind.
Conceptual time dimensions are invented times, t4, t5, and t6, which are
menta] constructs, for the purpose of deducing conclusions to which we
can append the remainder of psychical reality. Although we can imagine
dimensions that can be divorced from all the physical measurements of a
thing, dimensions exist only to help our imagination. All things have nonzero
lengths and are changing through all times. All physical times have a
duration, defined as a change of state in a thing that is observable.
Now
The NOW is the center of the world external to the body and mind of
the reader; the origin of the frame of reference. Events pass by the NOW
origin. This is similar to Heidegger's "Dasein" in Being and Time (Heidegger,
1962, pp. 26-27). The NOW of the reader includes a mental construct of tnree
dimensions of length (X, Y, Z). It may include one to three dimensions of
time (t4-t5-t6
Times and length are represented in brain memory. This has been proven
in experiments by Libet in Mind Time: The Temporal Factor in Consciousness
{Libet, 2004, pp. 15-170) and Triesman in "The Perception of Time" in The
Arguments of Time, (Triesman, 1999)
The attitude of the NOW is questioning, scrutinizing, giving a hard look.
The Now is dominated by the questioning, which has three parts,
1. What is to be found out by asking? The intention is to find out the
meaning of Being, a psychical entity that can be detected in the physical
world
2. What is interrogated? The psychical entities of a living thing themselves,
within the reader's own mind, are questioned as regards their
Being.
3. What is asked about? The word. Being, is what is asked about; the
Being of psychical entities.
Trien the reader defines Being in the Nirmanakaya state to differentiate it
from the ultimate Reality, the Dharmakaya state. Being in the Nirmanakaya
is the process of the reader talking about, or mentally constructing, or
contacting the psychical world. It is what he/she is, the NOW. With this
attitude, a small part of underlying Nirmanakaya and the world is perceived
by the entity.
37
Psychical Experience of Time Described in the Tibetan Book
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Bridgman, P.W., (1950) Reflections ofa Physicist, New York: Philosophical Library.
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Heidegger, M., (1962) Bems mid Time, 7"' ed., I. Macquarrie and E. Robinson,
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Heisenberg, W., (1958) The Physicist's Concqjtion ofNature, Harcourt Brace,
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James, W. (1992), "Psychology: Briefer Course" in: William James Writings 1878-
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Klein, P. D., (1981) "Certainty, a Refutation of Skepticism," in: Studies in Philosophy
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Jeffreys, H. and Jeffreys, B.W. (1950) 'The Real Variable" in Methods ofMathematical
Physics, 2"''.ed, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
Libet, B., (2004J Mind Time: The Temporal Factor in Consciousness, Harvard Univ.
Press, Cambridge, MA.
Padmasambhava, (2006) The Tibetan Book ofthe Dead, Gyurme Dorje, trans.,
Commissioned by Dalai Lama, Viking,' Penguin Group imprint. New York.
Spicelman, J.H., (1987) Toward a New Foundation ofPhysics. Kips Bay Press,
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Triesman, M., (1999) 'The Perception of Time: Philosophical Views and Psychological
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. Reprint requests to:
Robert G. Howard, PhD
I , 242 Hancock Ave.
Jersey City, NJ 07307
Paying for Surgery
A man awakened from major heart surgery and found
himself in the care of nuns at a Catholic hospital. As he was
recovering, the mother superior questioned how he was going
to pay for his surgery. She asked if he had health insurance.
He said no. She asked if he had money in the bank. He said
no. She asked if he had a relative who could help with the
bill. He said that the only relative he had was a spinster sister
who was a nun. The mother superior became agitated and
loudly proclaimed, "Nuns are not spinsters, nuns are married
to God!" At this point, the patient said, "Then send the bill to
my brother-in-law."
— Submitted by Boyce Batey
38