In modern culture, we measure much of space and time with systems derived from astrology. The 12 hour clock (solar zodiac/ ascendant), the week of 7 days (Saturnday, Sunday, Moonday, Marsday, etc – planets in the Vedic sequence), the lunar zodiac of a month (more altered over time), the 12 months of the year (solar zodiac again), 360 degrees used in a compass and in longitude and latitude (30 degrees x 12 signs), and so forth.
Even though some of the naming has drifted, the model remains more or less the same.
We also use a 3D model for placement in space (X, Y, Z). Buckminster Fuller proposed a 4D model based on the tetrahedron instead of the cube. But we may forget these are just a way of modeling space.
Nature itself is more efficient. In the space created by self-aware consciousness, it needs only a vector and a ratio.
The vector or line in a specific direction is called dik in Sanskrit, direction. In math, vectors are usually drawn like long arrows on a 3D graph. Drop the graph and the arrow-head and you have a simple line in a specific direction. The line itself is known as a sutra or thread.
That thread also has a large ratio that defines the length of the line at a given point in time. Not a simple distance like 55 light-years as that is always locally relative. The ratio places it within the context of space as a whole.
With just a line direction and ratio, it defines the point in space where the line stops and is expressed. The ratio shifts as the object moves in space and time.
Life forms like ourselves have a sutra that comes in the top of the head and gives us the energy structure (chakras, etc) for life. The sutra that places us in space comes in perpendicular. The 2 meet at the heart.
But creation doesn’t happen one thing at a time. It’s all happening simultaneously, so all the vectors of all objects (and life forms) are expressed simultaneously. That’s why it’s easier for humans to put lines in a box to define space. Infinity doesn’t work very well in equations – in the math or the mind.
PS – another word for direction? Intention.