of creation is space. Just as the eternal now from which God creates does not change, neither does God’s orientation to what God creates. The here and now are both represented by the dot on the spiral view of time (Figure 3).
We are used to measuring space according to the position of our bodies in relation to other objects in creation. My body is in this location and your body is in that location. However, though our relative positions may differ according to the tool of measurement that we are using (inches, miles, light years, etc.), our experience of them originates in God’s eternal being, the here and now from which all life expands and to which all life returns (the dot).
Eternity is here and now. Life simply changes around it (the spiral). By shedding our illusions of space and time, we are able to experience God’s eternal presence. Here and now, we are able to view creation from God’s eyes and discover the reason why God creates.
Un-Manifest
All “beings” that exist in temporal reality (the reality of created things) are manifestations of God’s eternal being.5 You and I are human beings, meaning we are human manifestations of being itself. We could, therefore, refer to a tree as a “tree being,” a dog as a “dog being,” and a star as a “star being.” God’s un-manifest reality is being without form, the eternal presence of God within and beyond creation. The un-manifest God is the alpha from which all forms arise and the omega to which they return.
God’s un-manifest reality transcends creation. Therefore, it is the most difficult to comprehend. Our concepts are derived from experience, and our language from those concepts. God the father, God the mother, ruah, the light–each of these concepts stems from an experience of God within creation.
We are bound by concepts, and concepts are bound by experience. For this reason, the un-manifest God is often approached by juxtaposing positive and negative imagery (i.e., if manifest reality is form, un-manifest reality is formless or without form). By describing a phenomenon with which we are familiar, we are better able to comprehend its opposite.
Silence and Sound
Silence is not something that we can hear, nor is it a phenomenon that we can describe without utilizing its opposite. Silence is the absence of sound, the quiet from which sound arises and to which it returns.
Our experience of silence is similar to our experience of the un-manifest God. We experience creation as the rising and falling of temporal forms. Each of these forms (from molecules to humans to the universe itself) is an expression of God’s eternal being. Beneath the movement of life, however, there is a silence. We experience this silence within creation, but somehow it is beyond it. Sound rises out of silence just as creation rises out of God’s un-manifest reality. And, both inevitably return.
Silence is always present within and beyond sound. So, too, the un-manifest God is eternally present within and beyond creation. The dot in the spiral image of time is present whether the spiral exists or not. The dot simply is, just as God simply is.
But, why is there a spiral at all? What compels God to create? In the beginning (the eternal here and now) God empties itself into creation to fulfill a single desire: to know itself.
God’s Desire
Being and consciousness (Sanskrit: sat chit) are two dimensions of God’s un-manifest transcendence. The transcendent God is being without form and consciousness without forms to be conscious of. God cannot know itself in its eternality. Being and consciousness are a unified reality (being is conscious), beyond the capacity to be known.
Knowing requires duality. For there to be knowing, there must be a knower and a known, a subject and an object. In order for God to know itself, God must become the object of God’s curiosity. Thus, God’s single desire to know itself causes the unified ground of being to contract and divide (Hebrew: tzimtzum). As God turns within, God witnesses God, and the vast potentiality of being stretches forth as creation.
Manifest
Being itself is a boundless reality. In order for being to be known, it must be expressed as form. When God divides itself, God’s eternal being is emptied into creation as a vibration that animates life. The manifest rises out of the un-manifest, like sound rising out of silence.
In the Hindu traditions, the sound of God creating is referred to as the sacred aum. As being becomes, its vibration expands outward, breaking the plane of manifest reality as form. Life moves as God’s being moves within it. God is the eternal silence from which life expands (un-manifest transcendence), and God is the sound which animates it (manifest immanence). We are in God and God is in us.
All manifestations of God’s being are expressed as form. And, forms expand as the vibration of God’s being animates them. God as consciousness (knower) witnesses being’s innumerable manifestations (known) from the eternal here and now. Life expands and contracts (the spiral) around God’s awareness of it (the dot).
Using time as a tool of measurement however, we calculate that the universe has been expanding for 14 billion years. The mechanism for this expansion is two-fold: 1) God’s eternal being emptied into creation, pushing it to expand and 2) the chain of causality: forms acting and reacting, resulting in a complexification of life moving outward toward self-actualization.
Life Expanding
A form expands as it is animated by God’s being like a balloon being filled with air. The balloon (form) expands as the air (God’s being/ruah) fills it. And, just as a balloon takes shape as it is filled, so too, a form becomes actualized as God’s being animates it.
We witness this phenomenon in the rise and fall of life. From the tiniest molecule to the universe itself, all forms grow or expand as they are animated by God. The orientation and complexity of each form are determined by the potentialities already present. The initial forms created by God’s self-emptying are direct expressions of the vibration of being becoming (aum). New potentialities are created by the interaction of forms, resulting in an increasing complexification of life.
Complexification
As forms expand, they do so towards a potential determined by internal and external factors. An oak tree will reach a certain height based upon the interaction of cells within it (internal factor), as well as its interaction with the environment (external factor).
Simultaneously, forms within and beyond the oak tree are expanding towards their potential (cells, other trees, earth, etc.). The oak tree exists within a hierarchy of expanding and contracting forms, comprising the interactive web of existence. As forms interact with one another, they do so in an environment fashioned by the interaction of previous forms. Thus, each form will have a greater potentiality than the previous, resulting in a greater potentiality for the hierarchy (i.e., an increasing complexification).
Self-Actualization
As the web of existence moves outward towards self-actualization, so do the forms within it. Self-actualization is the full expression of a form’s potential as it is animated by God. Just as each expression of God takes on a specific form, each form has a unique character (or self). A form reaches self-actualization when God’s being has been fully expressed through the various nuances of its character. Each form represents God’s only opportunity to know itself as that form.
As a form expands, its self is more fully realized, allowing God the greatest opportunity for expression. God’s desire to know itself is actualized through the creative process.
As we become, so does God.
God Knowing
