When It Rains, Does Space Get Wet?

Odiyan Sunset

"Time, space and knowledge are the most basic facets of human experience. They are the Being of our being as it manifests in this world. Space allows the world of objects to appear; time makes possible the sequence of events that gives order to our lives; knowledge gives meaning and significance to whatever appears or unfolds. Time and space are the ordinary stuff of existence, which ordinary knowledge aims to know.

Precisely because of their 'ordinariness'--because there is nothing more basic to our reality--time, space, and knowledge can also serve as the gateways to new vision. Knowledge in dynamic interplay with Space and Time can challenge familiar assumptions about self and world, knowing and the knowable. Time can present and Space can allow a new kind of inquiry, revealing Knowledge in a light that illuminates the whole of Being." (Tarthang Tulku, pp. xv, Knowledge of Time and Space)

whenitrainsBIG

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the emergence of the Time-Space-Knowledge teachings, Dharma Publishing has released the first comprehensive study guide to this vision.  At 445 pages, When It Rains, Does Space Get Wet? offers beginning and long-term students alike a valuable resource for exploring the six primary books in the TSK series.  Written and compiled by Jack Petranker, a long-time student and teacher of TSK and the editor of many of the books in the series, the study guide offers students several systematic ways to approach the vision and to explore many of its practices.

When Time, Space, and Knowledge was first published in 1977, it was hailed as "one of the most sophisticated cosmologies to emerge in years."  And while TSK truly does provide a new and compelling way to view the Kosmos, its rich, multi-faceted discussion of time, space, and knowledge is intended, not as a comprehensive "map" of reality, but as a point of departure for inquiring into and growing more intimate with the living, open, dynamic fabric of our experience.  In keeping with this TSK spirit, When It Rains serves primarily as an aid to inquiry, and only secondarily as an overview or summary of TSK perspectives.

The book is divided into six sections.  The first section (the one with which I have worked most closely to date) consists of a 36-unit study program, which introduces students to many of the core themes and perspectives of the TSK vision and provides readings and exercises for exploring them in more depth.  I have not yet completed the program, but so far I have found it to be a helpful way to work in a concentrated (and yet inviting and open) way with the material.  The study program is followed by a section entitled, "TSK Guide: 75 Topics."  As Petranker writes in his introduction, "This section organizes the themes of the TSK vision according to the three levels of time, space, and knowledge, making nine divisions in all. For each topic, references are given to the central place where that topic is introduced or discussed, together with related readings and exercises. The aim is to create a resource that readers and students of the TSK vision can approach in their own way and at their own pace, letting their interests and their sense of what seems appropriate guide them."  The next two sections provide additional ways to explore the TSK books from the perspectives of first-, second-, and third-level time, space, and knowledge, and the remaining ones offer concise summaries of the books and other resources, including a collection of references for exploring TSK's unique methodology.  Because the TSK books are so central to the inquiry When It Rains invites, a CD containing all six texts is included.

It has been ten years since Tarthang Tulku published Sacred Dimensions of Time and Space, the last book in the series.  Since that time, several books of essays written by students of the TSK vision have been released, but to my knowledge Tarthang Tulku has not written anything further on these teachings.  However, according to Jack Petranker, the study guide itself was Tarthang Tulku's idea, and he worked closely with Rinpoche in putting together several of its sections.  As a committed student of TSK, I have missed hearing from Rinpoche in recent years; but I am heartened by his involvement in this latest book, and I take it as an indication that he is still passionate about communicating this vision to the world.

If you are not familiar with TSK, or if you picked up the first book when it came out in the 70s but haven't followed the subsequent unfolding of the vision (which, I have argued elsewhere, is uniquely suited to speak to, and also challenge, the postmodern temperament of our age), I recommend Jack's new book as a good way to begin to explore it.  TSK is not a vision that lends itself to easy assimilation.  It demands a lot out of us.  But I have found the effort to be quite rewarding.