The Past, the Present and the Future
(Did the Buddha Exist in the Past Only?)

Rinpoche first discoursed on 2^nd May, 1993
Rinpoche repeated it at the Vajrayana Association (France) in July, 1993
Uploaded to the Website on 8^th October, 2014 (after about twenty-one years)

Introduction
1.	Today, namely the following day (tomorrow) of the previous day (yesterday). Today is also the previous day (yesterday) of the next day (tomorrow).
2.	A Patriarch from a certain religious sect had once said, “The past is empty (non-existent), the future is empty but the present exists.” Such saying still shows attached to something, it clings to the dependent origination of ‘Accidental Present’. Let’s condense the time for the moment by shortening one day into one second so that it is easier to understand and comprehend from this point of view. A second flashes through and this is the ‘present’, the preceding second immediately becomes the ‘past’ (which is non-existent) while the next second is coming soon but has not yet arrived (it is also non-existent). Among the three seconds, none of them can be able to exist independently, so they are all regarded as ‘empty’. Even if the scope of the time is further condensed into very minute quantities for analyzing, the time can always be subdivided into the past and the future regardless of its brevity. Take a ‘very short moment’ (kṣaṇa, a Sanskrit word) or one-thousandth or even one-ten thousandth of a time unit as an example, from the present ‘very short moment’, it can be cut off to a former ‘very very short moment’ as the past (non-existent) while the latter ‘very very short moment’ as the future (non-existent). In this way, both the past and the future can be cut off. From the remaining ‘present very short moment’ can be further subdivided into (another) ‘past very short moment’ and (another) ‘future very short moment’ though it is very short time. As the subdivision goes on indefinitely, the result is that there is no more ‘present’ but only the past and the future. As both the past and the future can be cut off, it means that they do exist. How can they be regarded as empty then?  It is because (the nature of) the so-called ‘past’ has already passed and ‘future’ has not yet come. Thus, both of them do not exist practically. Therefore, whether it is the past, the present or the future, none of them exists. As a result, the past ‘very short moment’, the present ‘very short moment’ and the future ‘very short moment’ are all empty. If the ‘very short moment’ are magnified and lengthened to become the past life, the present life and the future life, then the Three Lifetimes are also empty.

Orthodoxy
1.	Now that the Three Lifetimes are all empty, in that case there is a Continuity of Ten Thousand Lifetimes. Why is that possible?
	－	For example, take the centre point of a piece of thousand-foot string (it represents the present), if the five hundred feet in front (on the right) of the centre point is empty and the five hundred feet beyond (on the left) is also empty, how can the thousand feet be existing?
	－	Let’s take another example; if in the thousand-foot string, the five hundred feet in front (the future) is empty but the five hundred feet beyond (the past) exists, then there should be another five hundred feet in the centre point to make it reasonable and vice versa.
	－	One more example, if the piece of string is replaced by one that is made of very fine material and similarly, its midpoint is also taken. As the midpoint can only be seen under an electronic microscope, such a microscopic midpoint seems to be non-existent. Since the midpoint is non-existent, how can the five hundred feet (of the material) in front as well as the five hundred feet beyond be existing?  Hence, the present (the midpoint), the past (the five hundred feet beyond) and the future (the five hundred feet in front) are all empty.
	－	The so-called enlightened sage has an insight into the Continuity of Ten Thousand Lifetimes and the Three Lifetimes all empty. On the contrary, ‘In a moment’s thought’ of deluded sentient beings is clung to ‘a period of time’ and they think that the Three Lifetimes do exist.
	－	‘A period of time’ holds true because of the continuity of ten thousand seconds, the continuity of ten thousand days and the continuity of ten thousand lifetimes. Therefore, in a moment’s thought gathers the three divisions (remark: dawn, daylight and sunset) of a day together. In a moment’s thought can also embrace the 3000 Worlds (remark: three thousand realms in a single thought moment) and even millions of Kalpas in which all (the three divisions, the 3000 Worlds and millions of Kalpas) possess the nature of empty.
	－	The Dependent Origination and the Emptiness of Nature can be simplified like this: a certain cause >> a certain link >> a certain effect >> a certain recompense/retribution, in which all are in state of Emptiness.  Emptiness is not really nothing; it seems as if there is something existing but it also looks non-existence simultaneously. The situation is very subtle and hence in Sutra, it says, ‘wondrous existence in true emptiness’.
2.	The Dharma Assembly held by Buddha Sakyamuni in Vulture Peak two thousand five hundred years ago may not be over up to now. Similarly, the Maitreya’s Assembly (under a Dragon-flower tree) by Maitreya Bodhisattva five billion six hundred and seventy million years later may not start in the future. There are evidences to prove this. For instance,《Noble Deeds of Eminent Monks》records the experience of Wise Master (the major founder of the Tiantai School) in Tiantai Mountain (in Qionglai, China) during the Sui (581 – 618AD) and Tang Dynasty (618 – 907AD). It happened when Wise Master was reading【Lotus Sutra】「Medicine King Bodhisattva」(Sanskrit:「Bodhisattva Bhaisajyaraja」), his body and mind were in complete calmness and entered into meditation. He was then in the ‘Saddharma-pundarika-Samadhi’ in which there was a breakthrough in time and space in the realm of meditation and this enabled him to appear in Vulture Peak to witness ‘the Dharma Assembly in Vulture Peak in progress’ in Samadhi. Buddha Sakyamuni is still expounding【Lotus Sutra】on Vulture Peak; the Dharma Assembly has not yet broken up. That scene is very clear. The time when Wise Master attended the Vulture Peak Assembly was more than a thousand years after Buddha Sakyamuni. Hence, if one can understand that ten thousand lifetimes is actually in a period of time (or a very short moment) and a period of time is in ten thousand lifetimes, then a practitioner can collect and fix the Buddhist Canon as well as cultivate and acquire verification in a lifetime’s time instead of going through the three asamkhyeya kalpas. Carrying a ‘right mindfulness’ through in ten thousand lifetimes, there is no need to care whether the time is the Stone Age or the Bronze Age in the past, Electronic Age at present or the more advanced Technology Age in the future. All the time and space can be implemented with ‘right mindfulness’ of subtle wholesome practices.
3.	Time and space is of no difference to an enlightened one. Tantric Vajra Guru who is endowed with appearance, virtue and capacity can assemble all these enlightened practices to give practitioners empowerment so that the practitioners can attain achievement momentarily.
4.	For example, after receiving the Nairatmya Dakini’s Empowerment, Tantrayana Birvapa Patriarch immediately existed the meritorious virtue of the Six-Ground Bodhisattva. This happened because of the principle above. That allusion was also recorded in Tantric Sutra.
5.	Padmasambhava Mahasattva had once met an old monk and he directly pointed out, “You’re the complete Buddha.” The old monk shouldered the responsibility at once (this indicated his receiving of blessings from the lineage Guru). He then attained achievement in an instant without going through a lifetime’s time which is rather long.
6.	The Buddha did not only exist in the past, He is among the Three Lifetimes (the past, present and the future) and is ubiquitous. He exists in any time and space.

Remarks:

In spite of the fact that when an Attained Guru grants an empowerment or blessings to a practitioner, the practitioner will immediately ascend Siddhi (reach perfection). One has to understand clearly that if the practitioner does not have the complete ‘dependent origination’, just like what is mentioned above: a certain cause >> a certain link >> a certain effect >> a certain recompense/retribution. When the various originations are not available or insufficient, even though one has received empowerment and blessings, one may not necessarily attain the verification of enlightenment in one’s present lifetime.