Time and Eternity

by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Philosophy, Esoterica, Religion, Spirituality, Metaphysics, Nonfiction

143 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1989

About the author

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West. In particular, he is described as "the groundbreaking theorist who was largely responsible for introducing ancient Indian art to the West." (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Hend · Rating 5 out of 5]

O yeares! and Age! Farewell, Behold I go, Where I do know Infinitie to dwell And there mine eyes shall see All times, how they Are lost i'th'Sea Of Vast Eternitie
This is not an easy book. Coomaraswamy assumes familiarity with traditions, symbols, and metaphysical concepts that span centuries and civilizations. At times I found myself reading a paragraph, then spending an hour following its references through the Upanishads, Christian mystics, Sufi poetry, Buddhist texts, and Plato. And yet, despite its difficulty—or perhaps because of it—this became one of the most rewarding books I have read this year.
It is a remarkable exploration of time, eternity, symbolism, and the nature of the Self. More importantly, it reveals unexpected connections between traditions that are often presented as entirely separate. Again and again, Coomaraswamy uncovers the same patterns appearing in different languages and cultures—not as evidence of borrowing, but as evidence that human beings have repeatedly encountered the same metaphysical truths and expressed them through similar symbols. One of the recurring themes throughout the book is the distinction between time and eternity.
Time is the realm of succession, change, becoming, birth, and death. Eternity is not endless duration but an altogether different mode of being, an Eternal Now in which all things coexist simultaneously. The book returns to this distinction through an extraordinary range of sources, yet somehow never loses sight of its central insight. Across Christian mysticism, Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even Taoism, the same image keeps returning: the river flowing toward the sea, the drop returning to the ocean, the spark returning to the fire, the exile finding the way back home.
Coomaraswamy traces this motif through Meister Eckhart, Dante, Ruysbroeck, Shams-i Tabriz, Rumi, the Upanishads, Buddhist texts, and the Tao Te Ching, and what emerges is not a collection of similar metaphors but a shared metaphysical vision.
Eckhart writes that "as the drop becomes the ocean, so the soul is deified, losing her name and work, but not her essence." Dante describes peace as "that sea toward which all things move." Shams-i Tabriz invites the seeker to "enter that Ocean, that your drop may become a Sea." Ruysbroeck compares the soul to a river that pours endlessly into the sea because it has finally reached its proper resting place. Even the Tao Te Ching declares that all things under heaven come to the Tao just as streams and torrents flow into a great river or sea.
The river does not cease to exist when it reaches the sea. Rather, it ceases to exist as something separate. The passage from the Upanishad is particularly beautiful. Just as rivers lose their names and forms when they reach the ocean and are spoken of only as "the Sea," so too the individual self returns to its source. What disappears is not being itself but the illusion of separateness. The water remains; only the boundaries vanish.

The symbolism becomes even richer when the text turns to the figure of the Witness. The Witness, the unseen Seer, the inner Person, the Supreme Self—different names pointing toward the same reality. It is the silent observer hidden behind every thought, every emotion, every experience. The part of ourselves that remains untouched while everything else changes.
I was especially captivated by the image of the wheel. All the changing aspects of existence are compared to spokes revolving around a hub. The spokes move endlessly, but the center remains still. Most of us live at the circumference, caught in movement, succession, growth, decay, memory, expectation, and time itself. Yet the metaphysical traditions insist that there is an unmoving center behind all movement, a reality that does not participate in becoming because it already is.
The lunar symbolism expresses the same truth in another form. The fifteen phases of the moon wax and wane, appearing and disappearing in perpetual rhythm, while the hidden sixteenth part remains unchanged. The visible phases belong to time; the hidden fullness belongs to eternity. Everything that changes belongs to the cycle. Everything that abides belongs to the center.
This, perhaps, is the key to understanding metaphysics as Coomaraswamy presents it. Metaphysics begins when we stop identifying reality exclusively with succession. As long as we see only yesterday, today, and tomorrow, we remain trapped within the current of the river. To understand the metaphysical order requires what René Guénon describes as the ability to see things in their simultaneity rather than merely in their sequence.
Ruysbroeck speaks of a reality that exists "without before or after, in an Eternal Now." Nicholson, commenting on Rumi, writes that the entire process of creation, from beginning to end, is a single timeless moment of Divine self-manifestation. Eternity is not an infinitely long duration. It is a mode of being in which all things are present at once.
Rumi writes:
«“To escape from the moments is to escape from change. When for a moment you escape from the moments, mode is no more.”»
The point is not that one escapes time for a few seconds. Rather, one transcends the entire succession of moments — the endless chain of past, present, and future through which ordinary consciousness moves. As long as we live within this succession, we experience only becoming, change, and transformation.
This is why the author compares Rumi's teaching to the Buddhist notion of eka-kṣaṇa-sambodhi, “awakening in a single instant.” Enlightenment is not the acquisition of new information; it is a breakthrough beyond the flow of temporal experience itself.
The same insight appears in Heraclitus' image of reality as an ever-flowing river. Everything is in motion. Nothing remains fixed. Likewise, St. Augustine speaks of time as a “continuous stream of ever-flowing succession.” The world of experience is a world of ceaseless movement.
Yet Rumi's point goes further. The spiritual goal is not merely to recognize that everything changes. It is to discover that which does not change.
For the Sufis, this is waqt — the true Moment, the Eternal Now. It is not a moment among other moments, nor a point within chronological time. It is the timeless presence in which all temporal distinctions dissolve.
This is why the author notes the connection between as-sa‘at (“the Hour”) and Resurrection. Resurrection is not only an event at the end of history. It is also the unveiling of eternity within the present moment. It is the sudden realization that the timeless reality underlying all change is present here and now.
In ordinary awareness we live within the river. We are carried along by memories of the past and expectations of the future. In spiritual awakening, however, one glimpses the source from which the river flows. For an instant, the succession of moments falls away, and what remains is the Eternal Present.
Thus Heraclitus, Buddhism, Rumi, and Augustine all point toward the same distinction:
There is the world of becoming, movement, and temporal succession;
and there is the timeless Reality that neither comes nor goes, but simply is.
For Ibn al-'Arabi and the great Sufi masters, the world is not a fixed structure existing by itself, but an ever-renewed disclosure of Reality. What appears to us as permanence is only the result of an unimaginably rapid succession of manifestations. Reality never repeats itself.
As Ibn al-'Arabi's doctrine is summarized:
«"Phenomena are perpetually changing and being created anew, while God remains as He ever was, is, and shall be."»
And further:
«"The whole infinite series of individualisations is in fact one eternal and everlasting tajallī which never repeats itself."»
Thus, the universe is not a collection of independent things standing beside God. It is the continuous self-disclosure of the One Being through endlessly changing forms. What changes is not Reality itself, but the forms under which Reality becomes visible.
For this reason:
«"It never happens that the Very Being is revealed for two successive moments under the guise of the same phenomenon."»
Every instant is unique. Every breath is a new creation. Every moment is a revelation that has never existed before and will never exist again.
Jāmī, following Ibn al-'Arabi, describes the universe as a ceaseless process of renewal:
«"Every instant one universe is annihilated and another resembling it takes its place."»
Yet this should not be understood as a succession of disconnected fragments. Ibn al-'Arabi insists that there is no interval of non-being between successive acts of creation. The flow never breaks. The river is never interrupted. The forms vanish, but Being remains.
Rūmī expresses the same doctrine through the image of a stream:
«"The world is renewed at each breath, and we know it not because it remains apparently the same."»
And again:
«"Life is ever arriving anew, like the stream."»
Just as flowing water appears to be one river despite the continual replacement of its waters, so the world appears stable although it is being recreated at every instant.
The Sufis therefore speak of waqt, the Moment. Not a moment measured by clocks, but the eternal Present in which the soul encounters Reality directly. Al-Hujwīrī writes that the true meaning of waqt is freedom from both past and future. The Sufi is not one who lives in memory or expectation, but one who lives in presence.
Hence the famous saying:
«"The Sufi is the son of the Moment."»
And Rūmī adds:
«"The Moment is a cutting sword."»

It cuts the roots of yesterday and tomorrow. It severs attachment to what has passed and anxiety concerning what has not yet come. It leaves only the eternal Now.
This is why the Sufis repeatedly return to the Prophetic saying:
«"This world is but a moment."»
Not because the world is insignificant, but because its true nature is instantaneous renewal. The entire drama of becoming unfolds within a single divine Presence.
Farīd al-Dīn 'Attār pushes this insight even further:
«"A thousand years multiplied by a thousand years to come are present to thee in this Moment in which thou art."»
In the deepest sense, past and future are not ultimate realities. They are distinctions perceived by the mind. From the perspective of the Real, there is only the indivisible Now.
For Rūmī, spiritual realization occurs when the flash of illumination ceases to be merely a passing flash and becomes a permanent light. Then the moment expands into eternity, and what was once a brief glimpse becomes a constant vision. The Sun of Truth no longer rises and sets, for it is discovered to have been shining eternally.
The he explores a metaphysical vision in which reality is structured through opposites that are both divided and unified by a deeper principle, often expressed as the Logos, the “Now,” or the undivided point.
A central idea is the symbolism of the Symplegades (clashing rocks) and the “narrow passage” or “door.” Across different traditions, the hero’s passage through this dangerous threshold represents the moment of transcendence, where one does not move around opposites but passes through their very point of contact. This is described as an instantaneous act—“in a moment” or “twinkling of an eye”—where transformation occurs outside normal temporal flow.
The text then develops Aristotle’s idea of the Now (instant) as something that is not part of time, but what divides and unites time simultaneously. If the Now were treated as a part of time, all temporal distinctions would collapse. Thus, time is understood as always surrounding the Now, rather than containing it.
This leads to a deeper metaphysical conclusion: what appears as separation (past/future, being/becoming) is actually structured by a single principle that both divides and unifies. The Now functions like a geometrical point, and like it, it is both one and many in function.
From here, the discussion shifts to the nature of reality and becoming. Anything that exists in time is subject to change, destruction, and generation. Because of this, empirical things are described as unstable or “false” in comparison with what is truly real—namely, that which is self-subsistent, unchanging, and eternal.
This contrast leads into the idea (drawn from Hermetic tradition) that only the unchanging One is fully real, while everything in the world of becoming is composite and therefore always shifting. Even human identity is described as unstable across time, constantly changing form.
It emphasizes that creation itself arises through division and opposition. Reality is produced through a series of separations (bisections), yet these opposites remain bound together by a higher unity. The Logos is described as both:
the divider of the cosmos (introducing distinction),
and the bond that holds all distinctions together in harmony.
Symbolically, this unity is represented by the Axis Mundi (world axis), the central structure through which all opposites are aligned. The passage suggests that true passage or liberation happens only when one aligns with this axis rather than moving within ordinary dualities.
Finally, it reinforces the idea that ultimate reality is not found in temporal becoming but in the timeless point where opposites coincide, a vision echoed across Plato, Aristotle, Hermetic writings, and comparative Indian philosophy (e.g., liberation as freedom from the “pairs” of opposites).
Reality is structured by opposites, but grounded in a timeless central point .
And then there is a sharp distinction between becoming and being. Everything that exists within time is subject to change, generation, and destruction. Birth and death, gain and loss, growth and decay are not isolated events but paired structures that define the world of becoming. Because of this constant transformation, empirical things are described as unstable—never fully identical with themselves. In contrast, true reality is what does not change: that which is self-subsistent, indivisible, and eternal.
This leads to the recurring distinction between appearance and reality. What comes into being through change is “false” not in the moral sense, but in the sense of not being fully self-grounded. Even human identity, when viewed within time, is composite and shifting. Stability belongs not to the level of appearance, but to what underlies appearance.
Against this background, the text introduces a series of symbolic structures to express the relation between unity and multiplicity. The Logos is one of the most important among them. It is described simultaneously as divider and unifier: it introduces distinction into the undifferentiated, yet it also binds those distinctions into harmony. It is both the cutter of the universe and the glue that holds it together. In this sense, opposites are not accidents of reality, but necessary conditions for manifestation itself. The world is built through tension, not despite it.
Creation is therefore understood as a process of delimitation: the infinite appears as finite through form, measure, and proportion. “God is always geometrizing” expresses this idea of reality being structured through intelligible limits. The Axis Mundi or cosmic center symbolizes the point through which all oppositions are aligned—heaven and earth, time and eternity, unity and multiplicity. It is not a place within the world, but the principle by which the world is ordered.
Across all these variations, the same structure repeats: Plato’s One that is both one and many, Aristotle’s Now that is outside time yet structures it, Blake’s vision of infinity contained in the instant, Hermetic thought distinguishing the changing and the unchanging, and mystical traditions describing the dissolution of opposites into a higher unity. Each tradition, in its own language, points toward the same underlying insight.
In the end, the text does not aim to resolve contradiction but to reveal its function. Opposites are not eliminated; they are shown to arise from a deeper unity that does not belong to either side. The sea remains beneath all rivers, the source beneath all movement. The journey, therefore, is not toward something entirely other, but toward recognition: that what appears as fragmentation is already grounded in wholeness.
The final intuition is simple, even if the path to it is not: eternity is not another time beyond time, but the absolute Now in which all time is contained without divisionز

[Fatih · Rating 4 out of 5]

the book isnt for people who arent familiar with the indian philosophy. key terms are not explained in the book. you have to know them yourself before start reading the book.

[Diego Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obra esencial para comprender la idea del tiempo y la eternidad del mismo desde diferentes perspectivas religiosas.

[Rishabh]

Too dense. Too rich.
A book for religious scholars.

[Tiziano Michelangelo Boccaccini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questo prolifico autore è considerato uno dei più grandi filosofi tradizionalisti d’inizio ‘900, fu un profondo studioso delle religioni, dell’arte sacra e dei miti antichi. Viene persino riconosciuto da René Guénon come un “eminente collaboratore”. Tempo ed eternità è considerato il suo testamento spirituale, si tratta degli appunti di una vita che egli raccolse in forma di libro solo pochi mesi prima di morire. Il volume è suddiviso in cinque capitoli, ciascuno si riferisce agli insegnamenti sul tempo e sull’eternità secondo la concezione di una delle seguenti dottrine o religioni: Induismo, Buddhismo, Grecia classica, Islam, Cristianesimo e pensiero moderno. Il testo è molto complesso, poco scorrevole e difficile da comprendere sia per l’elevatezza del tema centrale, la trascendenza della ragione, che per l’organizzazione dei contenuti, costantemente frammezzati da citazioni di antichi maestri e testi sacri, selezionate ed euruditamente tradotte dal Coomaraswamy esoterista e filologo.

“ Le cause non operano mai a distanza, ma sono presenti quando e dove sono visibili i loro effetti. Le conseguenze delle azioni passate restano sempre latenti sino a che non sorgano le condizioni nelle quali possano operare. ”

[yo JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aby se člověk byl schopen orientovat v textu, jako je tenhle, který je tak neskutečně nahuštěný, je třeba znalostí v oblasti - teologie, náboženství, filozofie i fyziky a prací některých konkrétně citovaných mystiků, filozofů, i osobností a to vše ještě předtím, než se vůbec do perennialismu pustíte. Kumárasvámí se svojí "věčnou filosofií" (Philosophia perennis), za kterou stály i další myslitelé, jako třeba René Guénon, kterou zpopularizoval i třeba Huxley ve své knize 'The Perennial Philosophy' a ke které se i nadále odvolávají, nebo hlásí osobnosti v průběhu posledního století (Osho, StanislaV Grof), kdy bylo tohle učení jaksi "zformováno na papír", to tam ale sází s nemilosrdnou kadencí, odkaz za odkazem. Samozřejmě, tématem je "čas a věčnost", takže rozebíráme definici těchto pojmů v ohledech směrů, náboženství, hinduismu, Řecka, islámu, křesťanství a co je spojuje. Je to neskutečně náročný text na strávení, nahuštěný poznámkami pod čarou. K tomuhle se musím vrátit někdy v budoucnosti, protože v tomhle dnes, v tomhle "čase", na to nemám.

[Omkara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coomaraswamy expands upon the concept of time through the use of different mystical traditions including Buddhism, Sufism and Hinduism. He argues that all three traditions have had a similar approach to time. He argues that the traditional concept of time saw it as something that exists eternally, similar to an eternal present, or an unformed God (Para-brahma). There is merit to this concept as time itself cannot be reified linguistically, however, the existence of the past and present as something that persists simply in memory can be contested through modern ideas such as that of time dilation, which have successfully showcased a split between different points in time. This is still an interesting read, even though Coomaraswamy seems to discard the perspectives of other traditions or other schools of thought within these traditions that have had different perspectives on the nature of time.

[Sudesh Kolte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illusion called 'time' couldn't have been crystallised better anytime earlier.