Whirlpools in the Ocean of All

An imperfect allegory about perception and lived experience during a time of surface turbulence.

To experience the luminous void is to be a whirlpool at the surface of the ocean that opens out and downward to reach the bottom of the ocean.[1] The whirlpool that has touched the ocean bottom will experience the turbulence of the surface differently. When one is aware of and moves through more ocean, surface turbulence is placed in a different context than one who perceives the surface turbulence as a totality. I find it helpful to think of these two distinct ways of perceiving and finding coherence within reality as vertical and horizontal. One mode of perception is not better than another; they are simply different manifestations of the All.

Some of what follows coincides with much that has been written elsewhere, but I write only from my embodied knowing, not from readings.

Most people in this earthly realm choose to engage their reality horizontally; that is, rhizomically—through relationships, society, historical context, and communal time (e.g., religious and national holidays, sports seasons, voting, coronations, and so on) . . .

To finish the rest of this pulse, in reciprocity, go through the threshold.

If you wish to reprint (part of) this pulse or to engage for another reason, feel free to reach out here.

Image: Untitled by Mori Yūzan (1903).

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[1] What I’m calling “luminous void,” others have called God-Source, Source, and nothingness. The nothing before light, sound, or form. It is the ultimate potential before first breath. I also experienced the white pillar of light of the All, which differs from the luminous void in that it feels more like the All rather than Emptiness. It is total culmination, rather than total potential.