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in time.
It will then become clear what is meant by saying that a four-dimensional
body may be regarded as the trace of the movement in space of a three
dimensional body in a direction not contained in it. The direction, not
contained in three-dimensional space, in which every three-dimensional body
moves, is the direction of time.
By existing,
every three-dimensional body
moves in time, as it were, and leaves the trace of its motion in the form of a
time-body, or a four-dimensional body. Because of the properties of our
perceiving apparatus, we never see or sense this body; we only see its
section,
and this we call a three-dimensional body. Therefore, we are greatly mistaken
in thinking that a three-dimensional body is something real. It is merely the
projection
of a four-dimensional body - its drawing, its image
on our plane.
A four-dimensional body is an infinite number of three-dimensional bodies.
In other words, a four-dimensional body is an infinite number
of moments of
existence
of a three-dimensional body - of its states and positions. The three
dimensional body which we see is only a figure on a cinema film, so to
speak, one of a series of snapshots,
Four-dimensional space - time - is actually the distance between the forms,
states and positions of one and the same body (and of different bodies, i.e.
bodies which appear different to us). It separates those forms, states and
positions from one another, and it also binds
each one into some whole incomprehensible for us. This incomprehensible whole may
be formed in time out of one physical body, or it may be formed out of
different bodies.
It is easier for us to imagine such a
time-'whole'
if it refers to
one
physical body.
If we think of the physical body of a man, we shall find that, besides 'matter', there is
something
which, though altering, unquestionably
remains the same
from birth to
death.
This something is the
Linga Sharira
of Indian philosophy, i.e.
the form in which our
physical body is moulded (The Secret Doctrine,
H. P. Blavatsky). Eastern philosophy
regards the physical body as something
inconstant,
something which is in a perpetual
state
of interchange
with its surroundings. Particles come and go. The next second the
body is no longer absolutely the same as it was a second earlier; today it is already
quite different from what it was yesterday. After seven years it is an
entirely different
body.
But, in spite of this,
something
always remains from birth to death; its aspect
may change, but it remains the same. This is Linga Sharira.
Linga Sharira is the form, the
image;
it changes, but it remains
the same.
Any image
of a man that we may portray to ourselves is not
Linga Sharira.
But if we try to form a
mental picture of a man -stretched out in time, as it were - from birth to death, with all
the details and features of childhood, maturity and old age, this will be
Linga Sharira.
All
things
have
form.
We say that each separate thing consists of
matter and form.
As was already said by 'matter' we mean the causes of a long series of mixed
sensations; but matter without form is not perceived by us; we cannot even
think
of
matter without form. But we can visualize and think of form without matter.
A
thing,
i.e. a combination of form and matter, is never
constant,
it always changes
in the course of time. This idea enabled Newton to evolve his theory
affluents and
fluxions.
Newton came to the conclusion that there are no
constant magnitudes
in nature.
Only variable,
flowing
magnitudes exist
-fluents.
Newton named the rates of change of
individual fluents,
fluxions.
From the point of view of this theory all the things we know -people, plants,
animals, planets - are fluents, and only differ from each other by the magnitude of their
fluxions. But, while constantly changing in time, sometimes very radically and
quickly, as for instance, a living body, a
thing
still remains
the same.
A man's body in
youth, a man's body in old age - it is still the same body, although we know that in the
old body not an atom of the young body is left.
Matter changes, but
something
remains
the same
notwithstanding all the
changes. This something is Linga Sharira. Newton's theory is true for a three
dimensional world existing in time. In this world nothing is constant.
Everything is variable, because every moment a thing is no longer what it
was before. We never see the body of Linga Sharira, we always see only its
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