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Space

25 november 2020

Every living creature needs space. To be able to grow, breathe and live. Space figuratively gives us air and literally oxygen to survive. We not only need space physically, but also in our heads, so that we can unfold ourselves and express who we are in potential.

That space now seems to be getting smaller and smaller.

Working from home, another lockdown, face mask obligation, dark winter days, less freedom outside the home: your room for movement is getting smaller and smaller. How do you deal with that?

Are you currently experiencing enough space?

The Japanese language knows the word 'ma', which is used to describe the empty space between objects. Space, as it were, forms the boundary between several objects. 'Ma' is pure potency: it shows everything that manifests itself in that emptiness. The’ Western ' languages have no word for that. So we do not dwell on it either. When we walk into a room, we often only see the things that are in it. We cannot see the space around it.

This is how it works in our head. We focus on specific thoughts, which take up more and more space in our head. We can't think of anything more than that. We're getting stuffy from all the COVID restrictions. We have a strong opinion about wearing a face mask and about the seriousness of the situation. It polarizes us: we feel insecure, anxious and cornered. We go in search of certainty. In authorities, figures, our own constancy. They have taken a permanent place in the infinite space of our consciousness, which therefore feels like too small a room with far too many things.

Let's look at it another way.

Man is called "Microcosm" in the manifestos of the classical Rosicrucians. This idea is taken from the Hermetic Philosophy put in writing in Egypt. Thus, the mythical figure Hermes Trismegistus wrote: "What is below is equal to what is above, and what is above is equal to what is below."In other words, what is big is also small. Thus, every cell, every atom in our body is a reflection of our whole body. Each cell is a representation of that totality. All our cells together form a perfect balance in the wholeness of our body. And each individual is again part of the natural wholeness and balance on this globe. The earth of the universe. Of that which encompasses everything. Call it the cosmos, the universe, or God, or infinite consciousness.

When you meditate, you experience ‘ma', the space. You experience that everything in your life is part of a larger whole. Also all the things in your too small room that you regularly stumble over. That room is suddenly not as small as it seemed, because there turns out to be much more space. In fact, you realize that you let these things appear in space, and that you can move or throw them away yourself. It is your thoughts that limit your space.

Let's try to create more space for ourselves. Remember every day that we are all a part of a greater whole, of an infinity, and that we limit ourselves by focusing on that which manifests itself in it. And when we do this together, then we give not only ourselves, but also others much more space. Something we can all use well in this challenging time.

I wish you a lot of space,

Dorien

This short film ' Powers of ten’ (1977) lets you experience what space is in ten minutes.

You may seem to be the microcosm;

In fact, you are the macrocosm.

The branch might seem like the fruit’s origin:

In fact, the branch exists because of the fruit.

Would the gardener have planted the tree at all

Without a desire and hope for fruit?

That’s why the tree is really born from the fruit

Even if it seems the fruit is created by the tree.

~ Rumi