Thích Nhất Hạnh here quotes and interprets the "Ten Penetrations" of the Avatamsaka Sutra
The Sun My Heart (1996)
Context: The tenth penetration is, "All times penetrate one time. One time penetrates all times — past, present, and future. In one second, you can find the past, present, and future." In the past, you can see the present and the future. In the present, you can find the past and future. In the future, you can find the past and present. They "inter-contain" each other. Space contains time, time contains space. In the teaching of interpenetration, one determines the other, the other determines this one. When we realize our nature of interbeing, we will stop blaming and killing, because we know that we inter-are.
“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.”
Source: Four Quartets
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
T.S. Eliot 270
20th century English author 1888–1965Related quotes
“The past has ended its time, the present is the moment, the future the becoming.”
Original: (it) Il passato ha concluso il suo tempo, il presente è l'attimo, il futuro il divenire.
Source: prevale.net
“He who spends time regretting the past loses the present and risks the future.”
Gouverneur Morris to Robert Walsh ( February 5, 1811 http://www.bgdlegal.com/clientuploads/Publications/Publications/John%20Bush%20-%20Gouverneur%20Morris.pdf)
1810s
“I now spend a good part of my day dreaming of times past, present and future.”
90th Birthday Reflections (2007)
Context: I now spend a good part of my day dreaming of times past, present and future. As I try to survive on 15 hours sleep a day, I have plenty of time to enjoy vivid dreams. Being completely wheel-chaired doesn't stop my mind from roaming the universe — on the contrary!
Source: "Some Perplexities about time: with an attempted solution" (1925), p. 149. as cited in: Jonathan Gorman, "The transmission of our understanding of historical time." Historia Social y de la Educación 1.2 (2012): 129-152.
Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2002), p. 93
“Time goes from present to past.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice