The creativity of the unknown

 


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 forgetting of who you are as a historical individual person. The awareness of nothingness may change how you perceive your identity, and your perception of reality.

I notice writing this I hesitate, like I fear the words I apply will be grasping or attempting to control the experience. Because awareness of nothingness, of the infinite rich potential of what is not yet here, implies the courage and trust to not categorize or analyze based on knowledge from the past, but wait and pause, being humble and admit: I dont know what wants to emerge here. It may be something completely surprising, maybe even something that changes everything I was certain about. 

There is a pain in this relaxing of boundaries and letting go of definitions and concepts and attachment to outcome. Like the pain of giving birth, that you need to allow yourself to change and become something new, you have to let go of what was familiar, what was in your control. And there is a joy, the rupture of intense aliveness arising when the potential of the new, which you knew nothing about, emerges. There is a depth and sacredness in this experience, it is an act of creativity. In this perspective creativity is not about achieving an outcome based on what you already knew, but letting go of the beliefs of the past and allowing the new to become visible, trusting the unknown. 


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