Time and the Sarvâstivâdins

Abstract

This chapter aims to enter into philosophical debate with early Buddhist arguments and theories about the nature of time, the interrelations between past, present and future. The basic argument analysed and assessed, concerns the metaphysical implications of the meditator’s ability to be ‘self-aware’ in his mindful ‘seeing’ of his own mental states; to see their nature; and also to see their future, their karmic consequences, and even their non-karmic potentiality of liberation.