Guided by aliveness

  In the mystical traditions of the great religions there is an emphasis on the dimensions in reality which are not known to us. Often these are described as nothingness or emptiness, layers in consciousness which are outside of time and space, limitless and eternal. To a mystic there is a possibility in life to  access an immediate awareness of this nothingness.  What does that mean, how may this experience be described? Conceptually it is hard to convey because nothingness points to the layers in consciousness which are unfolding and ungraspable, that which is not yet here, that which is becoming. It is like a space of potential from where the forms of reality are being created in an eternal dance.  Nothingness is the unknown, so the conventional categories of good or bad, normal or not normal, are not operating. Even the stable identity you have, the person you thought all your life you were, falls away. Only nothingness or the infinite remains. Its like an oblivion or a total forge

  In the winter of 2021 I got an impuls to get a seven-armed candlestick, a menora. I searched online markets, found a beautiful menora, and purchased it. I still remember the excitement I felt. I usually dont like shopping stuff at all, but this felt different and important somehow. I wanted to light the candlestick and put it in the window so it became visible to everybody. To understand why this felt so significant to me, I started to explore the meaning of the menora. In jewish and christian faith it is interpreted in many different ways - in one perspective the menora is a symbol of the wholeness of everything. This spoke to me. The insight I received is that the menora is a symbol of the living universe, and we are all parts of it. If we hold ourselves back and suppress our expression in the world, we hold back and suppress a part of the universe. We should light our candle and not hide it, but put it in the window so the light is visible and can impact the world. In Kabbalah, th