Meeting the Void

In our embrace of Truth, it is important to know, that it is equally important to surrender to the Light of Life and of Being, as it is to surrender to the blackness of the Void. The keyword for spiritual growth is surrender, and just as we fear getting burned by the flame of True Being, so do we fear to embrace the darkness of non-Existence. Without relaxing into both Life and the Void, true integration cannot happen.

Spirituality is being introduced to- and in many people these days, and the growing number makes it easier for the Ones on the Way, to live with their decision for Truth. There is however a mutual misunderstanding happening within the spiritual circles, that spirituality is all about Love and Light.

As we grow, it is of great importance that we surrender to Life. The setting free internally of Life, in the way that makes Life and Love live in- and through us, is not only beneficial for us as human beings, but at this time is a necessity for our survival as a race living on planet earth. The travel into Love and Light, however, is not the whole story. As we find it in ourselves to relax into our true Being, we become. Becoming portrays the breathing in of consciousness. And as important as it is to breathe in, it is as equally important to breathe out.

While peace on the planet might seem possible through our surrender to Life, internal Peace cannot come from anything but an internal agreement to let die what lives, and thus embracing the Void of non-existence. Basic Space is not Love and not Light, and just as we can fear getting burned by surrendering to Life, an even deeper fear of dying lies beneath the realization of Life. And it is that of death.

Just as we have to get used to the Light, to not have it burn our eyes, our surrender to the infinite vastness of the Void, requires a time of meeting up with the blackness of non-existence. As we meet the fact of basic Space, we also meet in ourselves something that looks like a great depression. Depression is nothing short of ego’s disappointment and disapproval towards the fact of its own non-existence, and the first times we meet with the Void, we cannot help but react by simply running like hell back into existence! Since true Liberation and embodiment of Truth requires us to die into Space of non-being, we can not turn our back on this Void. If we do so, we end up with half a picture of Truth – a Light-being in flight for fear of its own destruction. No matter how much we surrender to Life and living, we cannot avoid the fact, that Life exists within another element. The element of basic Space is prior to Existence and prior to God.

While our surrender to God is absolutely necessary to realize Life, the realization of Life, of God, happens within the sphere of Existence. Without this realization, our Heart is not cleared of the egoic structure and so our human existence will still be affected by ego. While our surrender to basic Space is absolutely necessary to realize Truth, the realization of Truth, of space, happens outside the sphere of Existence. Without this realization, our Mind is not cleared of the “I” and so Peace will still be in wait. God-realization and Truth-realization thereby supplement each other.

Seen from the human being, life and living has a sense of up and down, out- and in, while the meeting with basic Space is a reversal back out of Existence. And so while Life happens within the boundaries of consciousness, realization of the Void is the development out of consciousness and into That, which is prior to our Existence as anything at all. While the realization of Life, is the realization of Being, along with all its attributes of Love, Existence and true movement, our embrace of Peace within basic Space is the reach of Peace along with its cessation of movement. Peace is not Love, and Love is not Peace, but the realization of One within the other, and basic Space as that which is unmoving, allows for true Peace to reach all the way into the human being.

As we meet with the Void again and again, which in itself is unavoidable, we end up having to trust the movement of Life, as it rises and ceases within basic Space. The breath of consciousness becomes unavoidable and we become equally as relaxed with being “alive” and in Being as we do with being non-existent in-, with, and as complete Silence. Liberation and realization of Truth happens through the cessation of Life within the Void. The rising and ceasing of Life happens as long as there is Life-energy to be transformed into Space.

The meeting with- and surrender to basic Space suggests a period of being highly troubled, since our non-existence cannot be wanted – but only realized. The drying out of ego happens through this embrace of the Void, which, although it is not what ego wants, is the Truth. To implode our Existence into basic Space of non-existence, we cease to feed our want, which is in itself a display of egoic energy – even if it shows up in terms of the saviour-complex or any other noble shape. As we pass through the hardship, we come to realize our own non-existence. Once the hardship is passed; marvel!

The meeting with the Void can happen to anyone. If we embrace- and surrender (instead of fight and resist) to the blackness of Emptiness, equally as enthusiastically as we embrace Love and Light, we will not only die to be born again and again – each time richer in Being – but as we embrace this Emptiness, as Truth, and dare to go all the Way with It, True Peace is the result.

Liberation cannot happen without the complete surrender to both the transformation of All rising Life-energy within us and our surrender to basic Space. With the cessation of every breath of consciousness, Life has shown us a new and deeper side of itself. As long as we resist our dying into the blackness of Space (by either the idea that we are to avoid it, or by fooling ourselves into running towards the Light), we get into trouble during times of consciousness breathing out.

Through the cycles of meeting with basic Space – as the element in which All Exists – we learn not only to dare to surrender- and die into this Space, but to relax and embrace fully the rest in the Blackness of non-existence and the Peace which follows it. True Peace on all levels of Existence happens by the embrace of both That, which breaks our Heart (open) and blows our Mind (Empty).

We can neither realize the Void or the true potential of Life, without agreeing to surrender and let go. We do not have to hold on to our Life, not to lose it. Life is there, as long as it is supposed to be – there is no decision to be made – neither to live nor die, only to relax and embrace that which IS…

(An article written in 2011 by Aisha Salem, www.aishasalem.com)