Beginning and Ending

Someone wrote of a substance that produces a calming of the mind to the point where remarkable inner visionary experiences can be had. He mentioned that it can take you back in memory to vivid experiences of childhood; modify the perception of the fabric of consciousness; and lead to an experience of the beginning and ending of the entire universe.

This is not about the substance. It is about the experience. Particularly the experience of the beginning and end of the universe, the alpha and omega.

The experience he writes about is not one that is related to time and space. Time and space are constructs of our earthly four-dimensional mind (3 spatial + 1 temporal). We experience time linearly, and space usually as two dimensions, occassionally three (i.e. those who are considered "gifted"). These are the limitations of an undeveloped and undisciplined perception. What else do we have then to experience with?

What the writer was referring to is not a linear 'beginning', nor a linear 'ending'. Indeed, the 'universe' is neither linear, nor is it three dimensional. The experience cannot be described, but perhaps alluded to. It can be felt, not perceived. This leads to the description of an "altering of perception". Perception, our daily experience, must change, or bend, or be altered in order to feel or intuit the experience. What is translated into normal daily perception would be akin to drawing a single-frame stick diagram of the creation of a solar system. (Hmmm, is this what led to the creation of symbols, glyphs, mandalas by the ancients?)

The beginning and the end are not places, times or dates. They are not the Big Bang either. They are each the expression of the nature of Existence. And, as such are expressed immediately before us in everything, always. They are one and the same, and have always Existed. They each have no beginning or ending. The 'Beginning' never began, and the 'End' never ceases. The expression "beginning and ending" are linear constructs to portray to our limited perception something that is beyond its reach. This might be illustrated by considering how a two-dimensional world (i.e. drawing on a piece of paper) can express or experience not only a spatial third-dimension, but beyond that to a fourth (Time, if you will).

Where does a sphere begin, or end?

Normal human perception does not have the grammar to express the Alpha and Omega. But something about the experiences described consistently lead the partakers to express it as 'beginning' and 'end'. Perhaps this is due to the experience having a quality of all inclusiveness within it. Within the experience, all experiences can be had. Everything stems from this single experience, that of 'beginning' and 'end'. The beginning and the ending are the complete experience then, and nothing else needs to be experienced after that. It is complete fulfillment. It is the merging of oneself into All That Is. There is nothing to distinguish one from the All.

If that experience were to be sustained, one would surely no longer have any need for Earthly existance. This since there is nothing left to experience. I wonder if that is what the sages of ancient knowledge have been trying to express in all their practices, writings and teachings. That there is no basis for the sense that we are separate from Creation. We have only forgotten, the way one may forget that they once loved the person they live with. They way we may forget how much we enjoyed reading a particular book, or listening to a piece of music.

We forget.

That results in a perception of separation, a perception of "three + one" dimensions. Remembering is the experience of the beginning and the end, when we may say "it really isn't so important now", or "I regret that I did this to that person".

We are the beginning, and the end, creation and existence. That is the experience. We've simply been hypnotized into forgetting, and distracted with other activities.

Why not leave a little space for remembering? Go back and read my first line, the trick was in the calming of the mind. How do we do that, so we may Remember?

- m