I should like to discuss
Being, Grace, and Mercy, since they are of one cloth and essential in understanding our place.
Today we'll discuss Being; and in the following posts, Grace, and Mercy.
We say we search for Being; yet why do we search?
Being is comprehensive. This means that there is no non-Being, except in God, who perfectly encompasses and embodies all possible aspects of manifestation including, mysteriously, its absence. So Being is comprehensive; asleep or awake, aware or unaware, conscious or unconscious, there is no state in which Being is not already present and absolutely manifest. Being does not depend on our consciousness or Presence; it is already present with or without us.
The question is never whether a tree falls in the forest where there no one is there to hear it, but whether there are trees and forests; and there are always trees and always forests, regardless of the sounds they make, or the silence they emanate. Being is like this. The entire manifest universe is Being; its movement through Time is being; its infinite aspects are Being. This is what we mean when we say Being is comprehensive; it
comprehends, that is, it perceives, it
grasps mentally; although this idea is far too limited to properly define it.
We might say it
includes all; and this would be closer to the mark. It is the dharma, the eternal manifestation of Truth. Truth and Being are actually and functionally indistinguishable from one another, and one wonders now why this perfect congruence isn't spoken of more often.
We call the congruence between Truth and Being
perfect because there can be no separation of the two; they are a mirror that reflects itself. The words that create distinction between them are actually a source of confusion; ultimately, there can't be any difference between the two.
So we understand completely that the manifestation of reality, as we call it, is perfect, which is why Ibn Arabi referred to God as
The Reality, that is, the absolute condition of perfection. It must be understood without any doubt from an inner point of view that this condition of perfection is inviolable, eternal, and infinite, and that there is nothing that can corrupt it. While the mind is only capable of formulating this, the feeling and the body are capable of sensing it directly under the right conditions. This is what is called enlightenment, although there are many degrees of this, and each one of them is partial, because Reality as we experience it is irrevocably doomed to partiality of one kind or another.
In the largest sense of the cycle and of the Absolute, Being occupies the note
do on the enneagram, and represents God the Father in the holy Trinity. It represents the Absolute manifestation of Being, which is distinct from the subjective or relative manifestation of Being which is always represented by the note
sol.
The idea that Being is comprehensive is an essential one, because the word has a greater meaning than would be apparent on the surface.
—com denotes synchrony, simultaneity, and togetherness, and
—prehend is related to
prehensile, that is, that which can
grasp; so the word means to hold together, to grasp together, to bring together.
Being brings all aspects of Reality together: it is an expression of totality, which is why the word defies any easy descriptions.
Because Being is comprehensive, there is no need to
search for Being. There is only the need to
become manifest within it; it is already here, and issues an eternal invitation.
If there is a search taking place, we would have to say that
Being searches for
us.
In the next essay, we will note the relationship between Being and Grace.
May your soul be filled with light.