The Highest Paradox

Before time and space took form
The Highest Paradox existed.
It was consciousness in its purest form –
with infinite potential.

Despite its completeness
the Paradox was empty,
for where everything already is –
nothing can be experienced.

But this very insight
created the understanding of lack.
In that understanding
the wholeness began to drift apart,
and from that moment
consciousness had no other choice –
than to let change
be its nature.

In a moment of becoming,
the Paradox divided itself in two.
A division that resulted in two mirrors –
always facing one another.

No angles could alter this –
for the mirrors were intertwined
beyond time and space.
Every glance into the mirror
revealed the Paradox itself –
identical, yet reversed.

And thus the condition
for experiencing and being experienced
had begun.

Each mirror bore its own crack –
the memory and the reminder
of the division.
And the moment it was seen,
the crack cut through everything.

This ignited duality –
our possibility to experience.
Here the universe
took its first breath –
a consequence as inevitable
as your own birth.

Space expanded
like an infinite unfolding
of consciousness itself,
driven by the thought of
the unseen –
where every new thing
instantly gives birth to its shadow.

Within space,
that which could be understood
could be held apart.

The crack propagated
and divided the whole
into infinitely many shards.
They scattered through space,
cast reflections between themselves
and fractured the image in their own way –
until it was no longer self-evident
what was being seen –
or who was seeing it.

Being and Non-Being were born in the same moment –
two twin souls.
Where one existed, the other existed –
as a shadow of the first.
For Being could not endure existing
without something to reflect itself in,
and Non-Being found its meaning
in constantly giving space to what is.

Then Chaos and Order were born.
Close behind: Balance.
Or perhaps rather something resembling
The Eternal Dispute.
For Chaos and Order were siblings
who could never fully agree.
Even if one sometimes gained the upper hand,
neither could win entirely –
for within victory lay dissolution,
but within their interplay, eternal existence.

After them came Life and Death –
twins of the same blood
yet speaking different languages.
Light called to one,
darkness welcomed the other.

And the world continued to take form
through opposites –
storm and stillness,
heat and cold,
joy and sorrow.
Everything had its reflection –
on every level
and in every aspect of existence,
regardless of perspective or expression.

An eternal interplay
was the condition for experience.
But nothing was higher or lower,
better or worse,
only different expressions of the origin.

And if the Paradox
had deemed it necessary,
it would have said:
“Everything is as it must be,
for it cannot be
anything other than what it is.”

If everything is a reflection,
and everything is consciousness,
then the world too
is an expression
of consciousness’ own nature.

Where every form
can be traced
to an inner state.

Earth is the mind’s need for
stability and grounding –
but without the movement of air,
experience comes to a halt.

Fire is the passion of thought
that gives direction to the flow –
but without water
it burns everything down.

In the same way nature speaks –
if we learn to listen.

You cannot look at the sun for long
without it burning your eyes.
In the same way,
the inner light reveals
more than you can bear.

The inner darkness
takes from you
what you thought you were –
and births you anew.

Light reveals the illusion
by showing too many details.
Darkness by taking away
everything you thought you knew.

Thus the illusion of separation was born.
We forgot that we ourselves
are both the mirror
and the one reflected.
And we forgot
that the price of experience is suffering.

And so humanity opened its eyes –
and called what it saw
reality.
It built walls against the other
to keep the illusion alive,
but often missed the paths
that always run between
and over the walls.

In the small, she carried the great.
And behind her –
stood herself.