Tenth Note

In essence, a paradox is involved, in the sense that true being or true existence is found through non-being and non-existence. “Cartesian Doubt.” We negate anything and everything in order to get to the ultimate truth. And above all else, we are negating the carnal self, which one should note is fuelled by discursive thinking and intellect and reason and logic. In fact, the only evil is the carnal self. As one mystic said, become nothing out of your selfishness, for your existence is the greatest sin. Moreover, when the carnal self is made into nothing, there is nothing left except for God. With no self involved, there is only the other, namely, God and the essence. After all, God created everything ex nihilo – out of nothing. At one point, there was only nothing or nothingness. Non-being. Non-existence. At best, we were mere ideas in God’s consciousness. Therefore, we reverse everything and go back to the origin or source through negation.

We then become “a mouthpiece for God” as a result of negation. Discourse and reason are replaced by love and mystical intuition. It carries with it great power and influence as well. But before exercising the power and influence, one has to be assured of the negation of the carnal self. As one mystic said, do not act in haste, but rather, delve into non-existence and then arise from the light of the East. Union then becomes “the baptism of God” while separation resulting from the carnal self is “the curse of God.” Man and God then become one as a result of it all. As one poet wrote:

To he who invokes the Names of my well Beloved, I reply; I call, and Layla replies to my call. 

It is thus because we are but one single spirit; You call us two bodies, it is strange; We are as one single person having two names and one single essence. 

By whatever Name thou dost invoke the Essence, that is the Name which will visit thee. 

My essence is His Essence, and my name is His Name. My relation towards It, is that I am engulfed in the Union. In Reality we are not two essences in a single being, But the lover is himself the Beloved.