Dzogchen and the Nature of Time and Space: A Thought Experiment

On Earth, we know time through rhythms. The sun rises, the sun sets. Shadows lengthen, then vanish into the night. Our days, our meals, our very sense of “when” are tied to cycles of rotation. Without them, we feel disoriented, as anyone who has lost track of time in a dark retreat knows.

But let’s imagine a thought experiment. Imagine you are awareness itself, suspended in space. No day and night. No cycles to count. No body to grow tired or hungry. Would there still be time?

The Eternal Now

At first, without a body or memory, there is only pure immediacy. A single, unbroken timeless present. You would not say, “this moment is passing,” because there is no-thing to compare it with.

This is what some might call the eternal now. It is not endless time stretched out like a line. It is the absence of succession. There is simply what is, unmeasured and unmeasurable.

The First Recall

It’s not that awareness remembers some thing, there are no things yet. What appears is a self-reflexive awareness: awareness briefly takes its own radiance as something to notice. That tiny inflection divides the immediacy of the eternal now into two poles: the noticing and the noticed. 

This tiny inflection opens the door to comparison. What was simply presence now appears as “then,” contrasted with “now.” With that single movement, time is born.

And something else arises as well. To compare, awareness must situate itself. “I am here-now noticing that-there-then.” Subject and object emerge. Space comes into play. That is the original rift.

So the same moment knowing that gives us time (past/present) also gives us space (subject/object). Together, they form the spacetime in which we usually live.

Two Modes of Being

From here, two paths unfold.

If awareness merges with that reflexive knowing, it becomes a self stretched across time. It carries continuity, a history, and a future to anticipate. This is how most of us live: bound to the narrative of who we were and who we might become.

But awareness can also rest as timeless presence. In that mode, even memory is seen as just another dynamic arising, no different from a passing cloud. Time and space still unfold, but awareness itself does not enter into their reality. This is what Dzogchen introduces as rigpa: timeless presence in which all appearances arise and dissolve as the energetic expression of the true nature of reality.

So we discover two mode of being:

• Self as memory-bearer: living in time and space continuum.
• Awareness as timeless presence: within which time and space appear as the illusory play of emptiness.

Returning to Practice

So let’s come back down to earth. What does this mean for us? It shows that time and space are not only “out there,” fixed in the universe. They are also constructed “in here,” born the moment we remember ourselves.

And it suggests something practical: if we let go of that reflexive knowing for even a moment, if we let go of our grip on who we were and who we will be, we can glimpse the eternal now in the immediacy of our own awareness. Not as an abstract idea, but the felt openness in which the true nature of reality unfolds.

A Simple Experiment

Time and space begin with awareness turning back upon itself. Our practice is not to escape time and space, but to remember that they arise within a presence that was never bound to them in the first place.

Go sit.

Let thoughts and ideas about the nature of reality settle on their own. Rest in the natural state of open awareness. Let whatever arises be exactly as it is. Rest in the immediacy of awareness itself.

If you can touch the primordial ground of being, you may find it timeless and unbounded, yet at the same time inseparable from the unfolding of space and time.

If you found this thought experiment interesting, I invite you to stay connected. Subscribe and share it with others who might enjoy exploring time, space, and awareness in this way.

And if you feel ready to move beyond reflection into practice, into the direct experience of timeless awareness, reach out. These teachings are not only ideas; they are a way of being we can practice together.