Carl Jung’s work with German author Richard Wilhelm on the Chinese classics, the I Ching, The Secret of the Golden Flower and The Book of Consciousness and Life, brought his considerable intuitive intelligence to bear on the “problem” of time.

Ultimately he believed that every moment has a time-signature, a character that confers a common nature to a time-moment regardless of spacial separation. Compare this with Dogen’s notion of Being-time. (See our Life of Dogen — listed in Archives in the sidebar).

Jung termed this coincidental factor Synchronicity to explain the persistently prophetic nature of the I Ching when used as an oracle.

Japanese Zen master, D. T. Suzuki concurs, “As with Buddhists ‘Here’ is ‘Now’ and ‘Now’ is ‘Here’. The idea developed in regard to time also applies to space.”

It is clear that Jung’s mental furniture comprised all the elements necessary for a full participation in the rich philosophies of the East, with their almost total concentration on the path to spiritual enlightenment.

At his home in Switzerland, Jung carved the following words on a block of stone, “Time is a child — playing like a child — playing a board game — the kingdom of the child.”

We know that time and space can’t exist without each other, and come into existence together, like Siamese twins. What exists in space also exists in the concurrent segment of time, so can’t be separated.