In the Tibetan tradition, it is said that time itself is the machine, and the physical world is the medium, or bridge, through which it travels. For over two-thousand years, Buddhists have had a less than orthodox way of perceiving time. Modern science, with its new fascination with quantum mechanics, is only beginning to grasp at certain concepts and theories already embraced by Buddhism since its birth. For anyone who knows anything about the subatomic world, it is less actual substance than a suggestion of substance. This is in accord with what Buddhist call the World of Smoke and Dust.’ While Buddhism might not be able to provide much of the math behind the concept of time (and, largely, it is only a concept,) it does provide, in its entirety, the theory behind it all. By it all’ I mean of course the Unified Theory of Time, Space, and Dimension, which, if we want to simplify things (and I think we do) we can simple call the Unified Theory of Dimension.
Buddhism operates on the knowledge that if space is infinite, it is not only infinitely large, but infinitely small. Of course space must be considered infinite simply because it consists both of Substance and Void, or matter and nothingness. If at some point space were simply to cut off, what would be beyond it? Nothing? In that case it is simply more space. And if it is something, well that is more space as well. As to the matter of infinite smallness, we look to mathematics. There are an infinite amount of numbers, but start at any one of them and count backwards and you will eventually reach zero. But what happens when you reach zero? Do you simply stop? Not if you’ve ever taken algebra. You continue into negative numbers. This suggests that if we delve far enough into the subatomic world, we would actually come up with negative weight atoms. Now, this is a difficult concept for most people to grasp. It’s like looking at a planet with a negative number of moons. We just can’t wrap our heads around that, which is why many Buddhists who delve into these areas go absolutely insane (and have to) before grasping this notion. Now I understand it hurts our credulity a bit when our major informative source is a bit off his rocker, but bear with me on this one. One of our major obstacles when understanding our universe is that we go about it all wrong.
Naturally, with the notion of negative atoms, we continue into an entire universe completely negative to our own. And this is where we get the idea of multiple realities. Yes, I know that sounds a lot like science fiction, but stop thinking like a sane person for a bit. You might just learn something. Buddhism has predicted the existence of a multiverse, an infinite number of parallel universes, since its conception. In fact, one of the Buddha’s favorite pastimes, apparently, was to predict which of his students would reincarnate into which one (since the transfer of energy, our life essence, was not limited to this one world.) So, now that we have our universe and one completely opposite to it, we can represent these as a line on a graph. And if this is so, then that line may also be intersected by other lines, not only once or twice, but an infinite amount of times. Now we have worlds that are not so opposite to ours, though in varying degrees of extremes.
Now we’ve strayed from the point a little bit, but all for a good reason. You see, with this understanding of an infinite space, we must also acknowledge that there is infinite time. I know that because of our conscious state, with its births and deaths, we assume that all things must have a beginning and an end, and this is not necessarily true. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Nothing ever ends and nothing ever begins. These things are only perception. Newton’s Theory of Conservation stipulates that neither matter nor energy can be created or destroyed, but can only change states between the two. This means that there is no actual creation or destruction, beginning or ending, going on in the universe; just a whole bunch of change. And this change is happening relentlessly, all the time. Thus, time neither began, nor will it end, just as is the case with the universe of which it is intrinsically a part.
So, as to the nature of the relationship between time and space, as I have hinted they are both simply aspects of dimension, thus dimension also acts in an infinite capacity, as can be shown with the earlier graph demonstration. And this brings us all the way back to time travel, and the Buddhist notion of Time as the machine through which we, as part of physical existence, are transported. Buddhists consider Past, Present, and Future to be the same thing, just products of a limited perception. To a Buddhist, all three are happening at every moment. You may ask, how can that be?’ And there we must tie it all together. If there are an infinite number of parallel dimensions, it stands to reason that, through them, everything that has ever happened, is currently happening, and will ever happen, is mirrored throughout their infinitesimal number an infinite number of times. I once heard it said, and I believe it is true, that time travel is really just dimensional travel. You wouldn’t travel through time, as we see it, but rather to a dimension exactly like ours that might just be a little bit farther ahead or behind.
As for the likelihood of such a thing to happen, I can only say that it is already happening. We can no observe, with our knowledge of quantum physics, every time a radio or television wave is sent out, something peculiar happens. These waves are made up of certain other waves, referred to as the Advanced Wave and the Retarded Wave. The Advanced Wave follows the normal forward course of time, however the Retarded Wave flows against time, going backwards. The problem with this is that, on most accounts, the larger Advanced Wave envelopes and retards,’ or nullifies, the Retarded Wave, hence the name. So, in the instance when we can keep the Advanced Wave from suppressing the Retarded Wave, what we essentially have is a naturally occurring time machine. And that, I think, sums it all up quite nicely.
