Transcending Complacency
There is the idea that you can create perfect stillness in the moment, in your heart, in your body, in your mind, and in your soul. It is when you can be supremely present as in that nothingness you will find pre-eminent presence and ultimately everything. In that moment of transcendence where you truly absorb the forces that inhabit the universe, there is a unique oneness that blends the individual into a collective.
In the mystical, meditative and mindful traditions, there are many words and concepts to define this transcendence. In the Sufi tariqah this is most often called fana fi allah. It is annihilation within God. The annihilation of self in the face of the universe. Yet, that is our normal condition. From afar we see ourselves as enclosed beings but ultimately, we are porous, interspersed and constantly regenerating through an interplay with our surroundings.
What is inside of us comes from outside and we exhale in each moment our environment. Where does the self truly start and the other begin? And in that frame, as you disconnect not just place from space, you realize that there are constant threads in time, from present to future, embedded in our realities.
What is today and what is tomorrow except a matter of perspective. Do you see the light of the star in the distance — but when do you see it? Do you hear the sound of lightning — but when do you hear it? Do you feel the vibrations of music — but when do you feel it?
It starts to become apparent that in our temporal reality of physical selves we have constructed a world in which we all inhabit. There are structures and societies. Countries and corporations. Languages and leaders. And as we adapt to fit in this constructed reality, we find a way to live, to survive, to thrive. And we thus descend into the abyss of artificiality.
But you can stop time with the stillness of your body, your mind, your soul. And then you transcend what is below. You may even find yourself enlightened — and certainly dismissive. Likely quietly arrogant. Astutely and humbly proud — for you have transcended to another plain of consciousness.
What is there in that new cloud of absence? What matters? What doors are open? It is in that moment that one can enter into a tumbling complacency of anything physical or temporal. What is the worth of the temporary in transcendence?
The miracle of the universe is the manifestation in nothingness. And in this realization, it is clear, manifestation, in its most simple forms represents everything. It is the animation of the body. Of the mind. Of the heart. And of the soul. In this, it becomes not about the artificial construct but the manifestation of self in its fullest form and to its fullest degree.
For very easily, everything can be nothing, and in nothingness there is nothing, and thus the appreciation of what manifests in nothingness, is ultimately everything.
