Buddhist Cosmology lecture @ UTScarborough

Buddhism Buddhism around the World Buddhism in Canada

June 19, 7:00 pm University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, AA 303 Y.

KARUNADASA Lecture: Time and Space: A Buddhist Perspective

Most early Indian philosophical systems recognized the objective reality of both time and space. However, in this regard Buddhism took an entirely different position: Time and space are not two absolute realities, but two conceptual constructs with no corresponding objective counterparts. There is no time without reference to events; therefore time is always determined by events. There is no one absolute time, but there are as many times as there are events. Different times means not different parts of one and the same time but times determined by different events. The same fate fell on what we normally regard as absolute space. Space is not bare geometric extension but the void, the void that delimits and separates objects, and thus enabling us to perceive them as distinct things. Accordingly space is said to represent the principle of material delimitation. As in the case of time, there is no one absolute space but many spaces determined by various material phenomena. Space is defined, not as that which provides room for the  existence and movement of matter, but as the mere absence of matter.  Space is not the opposite of matter but the absence of matter.

Sponsored by the Tung Lin Kok Yuen Foundation. Free admission.

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