Opening To Time, Space, And Knowledge

Ancient song
Call me home
Let me flow without time
Let me see in the light
Let me sound in the deep
Let me soar in the Silence
…of the Ancient Voice

Psychology 735
Summer `79

My how time gets away; I let the summer of ’79, the summer
before Carin and I took our Yellowstone trip, slip by without
a mention. Well, not to worry; these next four posts will catch me
and everybody else up. Actually, it was a productive summer!

It began with a workshop. The Psychology Professor, Don Beere, had
brought Larry Simmons to CMU to do the workshop on Time, Space, and
Knowledge (TSK). The lama, Tarthang Tulku, Rinpoche, had trained Larry
to spread his vision. The lama, from Eastern Tibet, was well educated
in all traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and authored the book, Time,
Space, And Knowledge, which expressed a new way of understanding the
nature of reality. In 1973, the lama established the Nyingma Institute
in Berkeley, California, the purpose of which was to provide a place
for the interaction of ancient wisdom with modern ideas. The Institute
offered an environment for meditation, self-growth, and intellectual
development. The primary person responsible for teaching and
presenting the TSK vision was Larry Simmons and he was also the person
who taught others how to give the workshops. For me, the workshop was
interesting and fun, but it was also just too much information
presented too quickly.

Not long after I attended the workshop, Professor Beere offered a
university class in Time, Space, And Knowledge. We (I was allowed to
sit in on the class) were taught how to release physical and mental
stress as part of the overall program that involved students in both
mental and physical levels of study. According to Tarthang Tulku, the
physical body was not a `fixed object' it was essentially flowing and
open. Using the books Time, Space, And Knowledge and Kum Nye, we
learned techniques for participating in the ongoing process of
`embodiment' of energies, which, according to Tarthang Tulku, made for
healthy bodies and clear minds. Those exercises included breathing
techniques, slow movements, self-massage, chanting, self-image,
concentration, and group process work—all of which were supposed to
put a person in touch with his or her own creative potential, as body,
mind, and emotions engaged the TSK vision. When one's energies were
made to flow more freely, clarity of vision was supposed to result,
and, for the most part that was exactly what happened.