11 - Awakening and Creativity

Awakening and creativity, the two poles of life's activity:  the universe discovering itself in each extension of itself, and the universe existentiating itself as it mutates by fostering inventiveness in each extension of itself.

Let us think of ourselves as extensions of the universe rather than fractions, and the universe as the being we call God.  For example, the live cell is not really a component of the body, but the expression of the whole program of the body (the DNA).  Likewise, we are an expression of the universe as a whole and therefore of God, rather than a fraction of that universe or a creature.  It is our realization of this in the course of our activity that is the first half of what we mean by spirituality.  The second half is manifesting and existentiating the program - that is, the mind of God - in which we participate or to which we contribute by our creativity.  The Sufis call the first "God Consciousness" and the second "manifesting the manner of God".

One could describe awakening as what would hypothetically happen to a live cell if it discovered the code of the whole body and was able to see itself as an expression of that code, and, to push the argument in infinite regress, if it could reach into the thinking of the universe and see itself as an expression of that thinking.  Or a villager on a world tour.  Or simply an astrophysicist discovering the galaxies.  Or, better still, a planetarian on a spacecraft who becomes a space-person.  But one has to bear in mind that what one is discovering is really the reality of which one is an extension; therefore, one discovers one's cosmic dimension.

But creativity is one step further:  it is discovering possibilities that have not yet manifested in the universe by actuating them, just like an aircraft creates its own path rather than following an already constructed highway.  Or, better still, the space engineer who discovers the mathematics that will chart the optimal track for the spacecraft.  Or an electron that finds a further shell for its orbit around the proton when existing shells have already been occupied.  Where do those shells exist if not in an inherent harmony governing physical phenomena?   They are not material things like roads or tracks in the desert.

We must be wary of thinking of this harmony as "pre-established" as Leibniz did, but as being invented step by step as the practical need arises.  This is what the Sufis mean when they say that God had to existentiate Himself in order to discover Himself - that is, existentiate what He could become (which possibilities are inexhaustible) by becoming it in us, rather than manifesting what He already is (which is the religious dogmatic view).

This is why I believe the Sufi teachings represent the spiritual dimensions of the scientific paradigms of our time.  Ibn 'Arabi calls the human "the created creator" (rather than the created creature) and Murshid emphasizes human creativity as being an extension of the divine creativity.  Of all works of art, he gives priority to the art of personality.  By discovering a new way of being, one contributes towards the advance of the harmony that is the software of the universe.  We are the being of God discovering unforeseeable possibilities within Himself by concretizing that which has never been done before.  This means prefiguring the new perspectives by inventing the way as one advances, finding new ways of being by customizing the advancing trend of the harmony of the universe in one's personality.  This is called pragmatic knowledge as compared with proto-critic knowledge, knowledge gained by experience rather than theoretical knowledge (sometimes called transcendent knowledge).

And Ibn 'Arabi says, "By discovering His Consciousness in my consciousness, I confer upon Him a mode of knowledge, and by grasping His Nature behind my nature, I confer upon Him a mode of existence." It follows from these propositions that by recognizing His Consciousness focalized as my consciousness, I confer upon Him a mode of existence because in the light of His Consciousness, I can earmark His Nature transpiring through my personality, and consequently actuate it.  Reciprocally, by actuating His Nature in my personality, I confer upon Him a knowledge of His Being that adds something to the knowledge that He had of Himself prior to projecting Himself into existence as me.

Murshid describes the transcendent knowledge as the state where human consciousness reaches into the divine conscience prior to the existential condition and the latter God's awakening through human experience.  By emphasizing the empirical knowledge, I do not mean to discount the transcendent one.  Murshid said wisdom is the interface between the external knowledge of the soul and the know-how gleaned by experience.  Of course, the extrapolation between the Sufi view and the new paradigms of science is mutually cross-pollinating and excitingly promising for the future of human thought.  As evolution proceeds, human thought advances like a tide untiringly breaking into new horizons.

In practice, what does it mean for the individual?   Being more luminous, joyous, aware, sovereign, life-giving, loving compassionate and honest than the universe has produced so far.  Is that possible?   Why not?   Murshid says it is our ignorance of our divinity that is our limitation.  We are not just the plant we think we are, but also the seed, and not only does the seed expect to reappear at the end of the cycle of the plant, but it carries within itself infinite possibilities of splendid mutations.
