A Brief Sketch of Time

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A Brief Sketch of Time 
(an excerpt of my translation of an essay called The Truth About Time)

‘Time' is the devourer of all things within the three realms of existence (Tridhātu) and time, in turn, is engulfed by the‘Master of Time'. The ‘Master of Time’ surpasses time, transcends the manifestations and perceptions of the unenlightened, and is possessed of an all-encompassing wisdom. Often appearing as the sacred likeness of Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī as a youthful sixteen-year-old, the ‘Master of Time’ sometimes also appears in the fierce and mighty visage of Vajrapāṇi (the thunderbolt-bearing Bodhisattva) furiously belting out a tremendous laughter which shakes the earth and rocks the heavens. Indivisible and indistinct from these two serene and ferocious venerable beings, Sarasvatī emerges from within the ocean as a beautiful Devi, goddess of all wondrous sound within the three realms. Hereupon, I bow in obeisance to these three sacred venerable ones and discuss the truth about time.
Friends, when we look back on the past or focus on the future, we can discover that‘today's manifestations, relative to all other perceptible phenomena, suddenly appear then immediately vanish, one-by-one, just like the trees and flowers we watch outside the window while seated on a fast-moving train. All the physical objects we use today, the house we live in, as well as the body of the five aggregates that we call‘me’ and everything else, are no longer yesterday's, as everything from yesterday has already manifested, then disappeared, having entered into the past. Time, like a demon opening its fierce maw as vast as heaven and earth, baring its hard, sharp fangs like steep, snowy mountains, swallows them all up in their entirety. Just as whilst I have been twirling the tip of a pen to write these few sentences, time has silently swallowed up several minutes of our precious lives. Our lifespan has already been shortened by several minutes. Whether we speak of a meteor falling down from the sky or a lifespan that comes to an end, these events both transpire over different lengths of time which cannot be considered equivalent, yet from the perspective of their‘utter dissolution’ there is no real difference between the two.