As you know, we’re a global Kula.
This seems something nice, almost abstract, until you think logistically.
How do we organize live teachings with people who live on the other side of the world?
What can we do to improve the experience of practicing with people who live in a distinct reality that we do? What language do we use? How do we reach people in the first place? What social media do they use?
These are the things you need to think about once you organize.
And yet, as the Buddha clearly foresaw when he taught the Kalachakra tantra, most of the challenges come down to Time, and timing.
Probably one of the most difficult things to pin down for a lot of our students was time, i.e. at which time each one of our activities took place.
Now, historically, we had a quite simple way to deal with it. Since our NGO is in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. we used the Time-zone of Atlanta. The Time-zone is called EST (Eastern Standard Time).
However, that complicated things.
Time-zones are a tricky concept. Time is illusory; time zones, doubly so.
Earth regions share a standard time; these are time zones. They helped standardize timekeeping across the globe, as the Earth rotates and different parts of the world experience daylight and darkness at different times. Prior to time zones, towns individually determined their time using solar position; this complicated matters such as train schedules.
We divide the Earth into 24 primary time zones, roughly corresponding to 24 hours in a day. Each zone is about 15 degrees of longitude wide (since 360 degrees of Earth’s circumference divided by 24 hours equals 15 degrees per hour). The starting point is the Prime Meridian, which runs through Greenwich, England, and is called Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). We offset time zones from the UTC by a certain number of hours—either ahead (+) or behind (-).
For example:
New York operates on Eastern Standard Time (EST), which is UTC-5.
California uses Pacific Standard Time (PST), UTC-8.
Tokyo is on Japan Standard Time (JST), UTC+9.
So far, so good. Using EST, a single time works; we calculate our local times using offsets. But then something else complicates it: the concept of Daylight Savings.
Some places adjust their clocks for Daylight Saving Time (DST), shifting an hour forward in spring and back in fall to make better use of daylight, though not everywhere does this—Hawaii and most of Arizona, for instance, skip it. There are also quirks: some countries use half-hour or quarter-hour offsets (like India at UTC+5:30), and a few span multiple zones or ignore the system entirely.
The problem is that while those places use DST; they don’t shift Time-zones, and not all the countries in the same Time-zone do. Let me give you an example: If you are looking at EST, both Colombia and the U.S. use it. However, some places in the US do Daylight Savings and Colombia do not. Colombia and the U.S. are in the same Time-Zone, but now (March 24th, as of this writing) they have a difference of one hour.
This complicates things. (again)
Therefore, as of today, we’ll adjust all events as starting in Argentina time. This might seem like I’m picking home advantage, but Argentina time has one enormous advantage: we never, ever adjust our clocks for daylight. Therefore, the Time-zone is rock solid.
To find out at which time the activity starts, wherever do you live, you can use a Time-zone converter. I recommend Time and Date Converter.
The way to do it is simple.
First: you put in the time, date of the event, and select the city of Buenos Aires.
Second: you add your own city (let’s say, New Delhi).
And it shows you the exact time and date of the event, considering all the Daylight savings change.
I hope that this reduces confusion about the Time-zones in the future!
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