Kind/Void and Void/Kind: The Phantasm of Start and Demise
By Mark Pifer, writer of She Seeks Herself
What have been you the day earlier than your conception? And who have been you then? The reply to those easy questions factors to a profound fact: the ideas of beginning and demise, as we generally perceive them, are illusions of the human thoughts. They’re constructs of a left hemisphere obsessive about kind, boundaries, and beginnings and endings–and blind to the deeper unity that underlies all existence.
The Nature of Kind/Void and Void/Kind
Kind and void are usually not opposites; they outline and depend on each other. Kind arises from void, simply as void offers the house for kind to emerge. With out void, kind couldn’t be perceived. With out kind, void would lack context. To talk of 1 with out the opposite is not possible. They’re inseparable, not two distinct entities however a single, unified actuality–what we would name Kind/Void and Void/Kind.
The primary time period in every pair represents an experiential leaning. After we converse of Kind/Void, we acknowledge the tangible and manifested features of actuality whereas recognizing their basis in vacancy. After we converse of Void/Kind, we lean into the formless potential that offers rise to all issues, with out denying the inherent presence of kind inside it. This interaction reveals that there can by no means be an occasion the place solely one among these two phenomena exists alone. There may be solely the looks of duality, created by the thoughts.
The Phantasm of Start
If kind and void are inseparable, then beginning as a starting is an impossibility. What we name “beginning” is the obvious arising of kind throughout the everlasting Kind/Void. The left hemisphere, the overlord of form-based considering, insists on seeing beginning as the place to begin of existence. It claims that earlier than kind–earlier than it–the left hemisphere itself–got here into being–there was “nothing,” nothing value discussing and even specializing in, arrogantly dismissing the infinite potentiality of void. That is the hallmark of the left hemisphere’s hubris: to border its restricted understanding because the totality of actuality, denying something that falls outdoors its grasp.
However take into account this: for those who declare that earlier than your conception you have been “a sperm and an egg,” then what concerning the processes that introduced the sperm and egg into being? In case you are prepared to see your self because the fruits of the processes that introduced the sperm and egg collectively–the penultimate step in your emergence–then what concerning the processes that preceded that step? Have been you not these as effectively? Have been you not the meals your mother and father ate, the air they breathed, the lives and selections that preceded their assembly?
And the way does this logic not lead all the best way again to the Large Bang, and no matter it “banged” into or got here from? After we hint this again, the boundary of “you” begins to dissolve. The essence of what you’re can’t be contained inside any singular cut-off date or kind.
And for those who say you have been “nothing” earlier than your conception, then what was the character of that “nothing”? Who’s the “you” that supposedly existed as “nothing,” and the place did that “nothing” go now that you just understand your self as “one thing”? These questions problem the ego’s story of id and existence. The ego resists such inquiries as a result of the solutions threaten its fragile constructs. But, after we look deeply, we see that what we’re has by no means been absent. Kind arose, but it surely didn’t come from “nothing” within the sense the left hemisphere understands. It emerged from the seamless unity of Kind/Void, the place “nothing” just isn’t absence however boundless potential.
The Phantasm of Demise
Simply as beginning is an phantasm, so too is demise. The left hemisphere clings to the assumption that the dissolution of kind means a return to “nothing,” a remaining finish. It equates the lack of kind with annihilation, unable to understand that kind and void are eternally interwoven. What we name “demise” is solely the transformation of kind, not its disappearance. The void that underlies kind stays ever-present, because it all the time has been.
Take into account the cycle of a tree: its progress, its fall, its decomposition into the earth, and its eventual re-emergence as a brand new expression of Kind/Void. At no level does the tree’s essence vanish; it merely transforms, turning into one other manifestation within the goddess’s infinite ecstatic play of existence. To the suitable hemisphere, which perceives holistically, that is apparent. It sees transformation, not cessation. The left hemisphere, in its fixation on kind, fears this transformation and labels it “demise.”
The Function of the Human Thoughts
The illusions of beginning and demise come up from the thoughts’s dualistic nature, significantly the dominance of the left hemisphere. This hemisphere is masterful at creating classes and bounds, however its worldview is incomplete. The truth is, for it to perform, it should function in a state of ignore-ance; it should willfully look away from the connection between what it has created and the entire. It’s this very act of ignore-ance that offers rise to the phantasm of kind altogether.
The appropriate hemisphere, in contrast, perceives the entire–the unity of Kind/Void. It is aware of that kind by no means separates from void, simply as waves by no means separate from the ocean. By shifting consciousness to the suitable hemisphere, we will start to dissolve the illusions of beginning and demise and relaxation within the fact of what’s.
God Enjoying with Kind
This perception is why I usually say, as I did earlier on this essay, that the whole thing of existence may be described as merely God taking part in with kind. God, as Void/Kind, expresses the play of void as kind and kind as void. The waves rise and fall, the varieties seem and dissolve, but the ocean–the underlying unity–the Goddess Herself–stays unchanged.
Via this lens, what we name “beginning” and “demise” are usually not beginnings or endings however moments throughout the everlasting dance of existence. Each kind is the void in disguise, and each void is pregnant with the potential of kind. God, as each the formless and the fashioned, delights within the infinite prospects of this interaction.
This “play” just isn’t frivolous however deeply significant. It’s the expression of infinite creativity and boundless potential. After we cease clinging to the phantasm of separateness–to the concept that we’re remoted beings with definitive beginnings and endings–we start to see that we, too, are a part of this divine play. The boundaries of “you” dissolve, and what stays is the peace of being one with all that’s.
This understanding doesn’t require perception; it requires seeing. The universe, in its infinite transformations, is the proof. In each breath, each wave, each beginning and demise, God is taking part in with kind.
Implications for Human Expertise
Seeing by way of the illusions of beginning and demise has profound implications. It frees us from existential worry and the attachments that come up from it. After we perceive that nothing is ever really born or misplaced, we will embrace life’s impermanence with peace. Start and demise turn out to be markers of transformation, not endpoints. This shift permits us to reside totally within the current second, unburdened by the necessity to cling to kind or resist change.
Conclusion
Let these phrases information you to the peace of realizing that what you’re was by no means really born and can by no means really die. Kind and void, beginning and demise, are however illusions–and actuality is way better than the thoughts can conceive. And thank Goddess! Who would need to be sure to the restrictions of what the human thoughts can create or comprehend for eternity!?
A Contemplative Name to Motion
The subsequent time one thing feels overwhelmingly essential or “particular,” problem your self to pause. Look past the floor look of kind and void, and see the unity that underlies all of it. Replicate on how nothing may be really separate, and subsequently no factor may be inherently kind of vital than one other. Follow resting on this understanding, permitting it to dissolve attachments and reveal the peace that lies past distinctions.
“All issues are born of being. Being is born of non-being.” — Lao Tzu
