On Being and the Majesty of the Worlds 

ontology in a Sûfî perspective
a theomonist arabesque

©  Wim van den Dungen

On Sheer Being

On the modes of being

On the Divine mode of being

On the Oneness of Divine Life

On the freedom of Perfection

On the Creator

On the unreal modes of being

On metaphysical, moral & cultural chaos

On the futility of seeking the Absolute

On the being that is : the Water of Life

 dedicated with gratitude to Ibn'Arabî
the Greatest Master (al-shaykh al-akbar)

"God's essence is only for God to be in. The Divine procession starts when God begins realizing God & ends at the Jubilee of Jubilees (JJ) when He celebrates His last Cosmos (Immanence equating Transcendence). Between beginning & end, God's Plan proceeds from God, i.e. God is 'becoming' more than essence ('ousia'), He creates existence ('energeia'). God's essence is inaccessible to Its outside ('esse subsistens'). It is Its own first cause ('causa sui'). It is for God to partake in. God (YHadonaïVY) shows Himself through His Cosmoi. But to what He (as Elohîm) manifests, God is potential, silent & withdrawn, i.e. an unknowable Divine darkness."
YHVH, 1995, § 1.

Sheer BEING 

Wonder, bewilderment, perplexity, astonishment, amazement, awe ... describe the all-conscious station of no delimitations. In vain the seers try to convey through intuitions, intellectual perceptions, enlightened reasonings and other "gnostic" states and permanent stations of consciousness what they witness in every instant of existence, and know as the interval of their own being as an actual thing. For only in the instant may the highest veil of existence suggest the face of the Absolute in its absoluteness which in reality stays forever veiled. 

Absolute Being is not seen. For how can our consciousness escape the instant of its so-called observation of the Real ? At best the Station of No Station suggests the lifting of the highest veil of existence. But behold : an instant later this insight itself is the highest veil of existence and hence the essence of being remains for ever for the Alone to be in. 

A natural disunited multiplicity of being (or "disjecta membra") is illusionary. Although variety is obvious and not to be denied, no multiplication is possible without a logical standard which a priori comes first. Hence, the first axiom of ontology :

(Ax1) : Being is one.

The essential Unity of being (essence of being, Sheer Being or nothing but being) and the Oneness of the existing multiplicity (existence of being : unmanifest plus manifest being) suggest the second axiom : 

(Ax2) : Everything takes place in the Unity of being.

All beings are processed events, existing in this instant and vanishing in the next. Were it not that all manifest things are an isthmus joining their actual existence with their Divine counterparts, the fixed potential, eternal object or Self of each thing, no absolute standard would exist and hence no comparisons between instants would be possible. Because of the interval the instants may be temporarily frozen in relative constructions (the products of the process of being). 

(Ax3) : The continuity of actual things is a perpetually recurrent and unconditional trace of the Firstness of actual things, rooted in the Oneness of the attributes of the Divine Consciousness of the Majesty of the Worlds.

  The modes of BEING 

The modes of being are the Self-disclosure of the Absolute, and imply a mode of Sheer Being. The essence of the Absolute is without another, and so as essence and only as essence (not as existence) is Sheer Being wholly "totaliter aliter". This tranquil aloneness is beyond all possible affirmation & negation. It is a nondual being devoid of all possible dialectical complexities. The essence of the Absolute is the Level, the ineffable top dimension on the scale of all the modes of being, the Real essence encompassing the organised representations of the modes of being. The Level is the maximum absolute and the maximum contraction is the Self-disclosure of the Absolute as Oneness of Divine Existence.

(Ax4) : The modes of being are all contained in the Unity of being and express various Self-disclosures of Sheer Being entering existence.

The modes of being refer to events happening within Sheer Being. What is the difference ? For the Real there is no difference as only one event is Real (the maximum absolute of event-space is one event containing all potential absolute sets of possible events). The modes are different expressions of always the same being and they remain wholly part of Sheer Being. Because the essence of being is one, no mode of being can move out of the Unity of being. This Unity is the fundamental characteristic of both Sheer Being, unmanifest being and manifest actual things.

Nevertheless, the duality of the process of being appears with potential being (all possible Divine Names with their essential forms : the Archetypes or Selves) but abides in the Oneness of the all-comprehensive Name of the Majesty of the World, prefigurated in the absolute stillness of the Real, encompassing essential Unity and the possibility of all possible existential infinities or extentions of the essence of being.

In theology this paradox can be made more efficient by attributing the contradiction to a coincidence. Hence the Real is Sheer Being beyond all possible modes of being (it is not a mode, not a no-mode and neither a mode or a no-mode). No being is like Sheer Being, but the traces of this Absolute Being can be discovered everywhere and this all the time. This reveals the bi-polarity of the Divine to be a coincidence of opposites beyond all reason for Self-disclosure takes place within Sheer Being, although this essential Unity of being radically transcends and exceeds all creations, even the hidden treasure of Divine Consciousness.

 Divine EXISTENCE 

Divine Existence is the Divine mode of being. As soon as the Absolute in absoluteness extends towards existence, It makes knowable to Itself the hidden treasure of the multiplicity-in-Oneness of Divine Existence. This ingress is as an everlasting overflow of Absolute Being into relative Divine Existence which never smells the fragrance of actuality but permanently subsist in all eternity. Divine Existence, put aside from the essence of being, is the essence of the totality of all of existence (both as Archetypes, as actual things as well as eternal objects of the interval of actual existing things). Because these essences are other than Sheer Being their are perfectly unreal. The Unity of the essence of being and the Oneness of these essences of existence are Real. Hence, Divine Life is as Real as Sheer Being. The Absolute is therefore Unity of essence (Sheer Being) and Oneness of potential (the Majesty of the Worlds).

In Divine Existence the Absolute becomes conscious of Itself as the potentiality of an infinity of existences.

(Ax5) : The Archetypes are fixed for eternity by the very structure of Sheer Being but are unreal when considered by themselves, i.e. without their Oneness in Divine Consciousness.

Divine Existence is :

• an all-comprehensive Real Self-disclosure involving all determinations ;

• the Real Divine Oneness of all Self-determinations and

• the unreality of independent Divine Archetypes, i.e. particular relations in which the Divine Consciousness stands to actual (existing) things (the eternal objects being properties of the Archetypes).

As this overflow of essence takes place within Sheer Being all emptiness within existence is actually filled with Absolute Being. This entrance of existence does not disturb the essential Unity of being, although it does imply a repolarization of being from nondual remoteness (beyond limitation & non-limitation) to dialectical nearness (each infinity being limited by the features of its own infiniteness and by that of an infinite number of other infinities). This is a dramatical event surely. Nevertheless, being knows no essential schisms and allows for a variety of unmanifest events in Divine Existence.

(Ax6) : Being abhors emptiness : absolute nothingness does not exist.

Divine Existence (which is unmanifest) is the first mode of Sheer Being. Manifest being is the second mode. The Archetypes stand between the truly Absolute (the Level) and the worlds of actuality which are projected by Divine Consciousness within Itself upon the Mirror of Mercy. Potential being can not be without the actualisation of its activities in actual existing worlds. Nevertheless, all this stays unmanifest without the creative command "Be" decreed by the Creator of each world. This command is given to all possible actual things of each possible world indiscriminately.

Unmodified being does not exist, except as Sheer Being in which a mirrored existence occurs. Divine Existence is modified by the all-encompassing coincidence of opposites revealed in the Archetypes and the limitations given by their properties, the eternal objects (unveiled by the interval of being). It is not a hidden Unity of essence but -under the inner pressure of its Oneness- the outgoing multiplicity of an infinite number of infinite permutations of all possible infinite sets, containing all possible events in all possible worlds which are all present at once in the all-comprehensive Oneness, the Divine Consciousness of the Majesty of the Worlds. The Majesty of this Consciousness suggests the Incomprehensible nature of the Level.

 The Oneness of DIVINE Life 

Because of the appearence of Divine Existence as the first mode of the Real, the Unity of essence becomes the Oneness of all of relative existence : the Archetypes, potential being (eternal objects as properties of the Archetypes) and the Oneness of the Archetypes.

This Oneness of existence is a Being which never ceases to change and transform from instant to instant according to all the Archetypes, allowing the base Archetypes to be probable imperfections, a reckoning made outside Its Divine Existence, made in the cloud of freedom wherein It abides.

No single actual thing is able to contain this One Being, i.e. be a place of Self-disclosure of this Oneness of Divine Existence in its integrity. Firstly, because It encompasses all worlds (not only our world). So only all worlds are able to offer an ontological counterpart. Secondly, because It involves all Selves (eternal objects) and not some particular Self only.

The ontological status of the Oneness of Divine Existence is clear : the Divine is present in every actual thing, but not as maximum Absolute or Sheer Being. The Oneness of the Divine Life of the Majesty of the Worlds is the maximum contraction which truly glorifies the fullness of the Absolute event, the Level, the absolutely absolute. The maximum contraction is unmanifest and potential. Nevertheless it is not hidden like the essential Unity of being. And like the Unity of being it is Real.

This multiplicity (being itself unmanifest) made One by the Majesty of the Worlds is a most holy ingress of Sheer Being into Divine Existence and is absolutely potential (like holding one's breath). Divine Life naturally tends towards manifestation (by breathing out loci of manifestation, i.e. the worlds). Each bursting forth happens through the unmanifest Divine Will and is the act of manifesting a world on the Mirror of Divine Self-disclosure. This is no longer Divine Existence, but the illusionary appearence (behind the surface of the mirror) of actual things as a result of the holy ingress of Divine Existence into manifestation. The first actual thing appearing being the Real Creator of the world in question. 

(Ax7) : The Oneness of being does not depend on the relationships between the essence of being and its extensions but solely on the all-comprehensive prehension of the Majesty of the Worlds.

For the Real, the Archetypes are unreal. They are the inexhaustible relationships between Sheer Being and the worlds of manifestation. Nevertheless, as the Oneness of multiplicity is the entrance of the Unity of essence into Divine Existence, the Majesty of the Worlds is Real. So this means that the Archetypes by themselves are unreal because they are only relationships between the essence of being and the worlds. If the eternal objects are properties of relationships, then clearly they too are unreal. The only Real within Divine Existence being thus the Oneness of these potencies.

 The freedom of PERFECTION 

The interval of being implies a decisive decree concerning the actual things. This pre-determination is given with the eternal objects, the properties of the Archetypes. Each actual thing is therefore pre-determinated by a particular Archetype in Divine Existence. Hence, the Absolute's Knowledge about a certain actual thing is based on its very essence.

The ingress of Unitary essence of being into the existence of essences encompassed by Oneness introduces the first dialectical division by establishing the tension between Sheer Being and Divine Existence. At this level just below the Level this tension is harmonised by the Majesty of the Worlds, the Divine Consciousness of all in all. So the first dialectical division is wholly passive and submitted to the Divine Will. This passivity is embedded in the overall active, outgoing and Self-manifest nature of unmanifest being.

Between the active Oneness of all Self-determinations at the level of Divine Existence, which is absolutely pre-determinated and unmanifest, and the manifest, concrete, actual creation of our world exists a mode of Sheer Being which passively contains all probable actual things belonging to the world at hand, also its perfect state. The most likely state of affairs of a world is its perfect state. This perfection will necessarily eventuate in order for the world to wholly reflect its particular Archetype and eternal objects. However, this mode is a cloud because it is not sure when and where the pre-determined events will happen. As the base Archetypes manifest as the probability of a non-determinated choice, the pre-determinated sequence could be altered (and often is). 

The first mode (or most holy ingress) was without space & time. The second mode (or holy ingress) is wholly part of creation. The cloud is a borderland, a field of probable events. This field is not creative but nevertheless polarises all possible events of this world into "likely" and "unlikely", valuating every probable event on the scale of "perfect" and "imperfect", the latter being the probability that actual things choose for imperfection, which is possible but can not be pre-determined.

The process of the actual creation of a world involves the compression of its Archetype into the first actual thing (or first creative being). The latter crowns its creation, is its illusionary fountainhead and actual Creator "behind" the surface of Divine Consciousness. The Majesty of the Worlds encompassing all of unmanifest being, all possible Creators. Hence, each world is created & ruled by its First Thing, i.e. a Creator who fashions the actual things on the basis of the Divine Archetype of that world. The Creator of each world representing the whole Majesty of the Worlds but viewed from the perspective of the Archetype of that world. This lesser Majesty extending to all possible events in one world.

(Ax8) : The freedom of the beings is the presence of a non-determinated choice resulting from a valuation of the base Archetypes as possible digressions from the pre-determinated, perfect course of events in the realm of the unreal.

Between the Majesty of the Worlds and the actual Creator, between the Oneness of opposing potences (cf. the dialectical process between the Archetypes themselves, order with its synthesis always outweighing chaos with its antinomy) stands the possibility of a non-determinated choice for imperfection belonging to the care of each Creator. This is an activity which runs against the pre-determined essence of an actual world.  Nevertheless, the most likely outcome of any world is the actualisation of its Archetype and the return of all of its actual things (via their perfect states) to their original eternal objects as they are (for all times) Known in Divine Consciousness. So the choice for imperfection does not influence pre-determination nor its final actualisation (which is irreversible) but alters the specification or allotment of the appointed instant each event should actually occur in accordance with its archetypal state. Evil is thus basically bad timing.

Sheer Being stands at the silent, ineffable, nondual, hidden Level which enters in Divine Existence as a multiplicity-in-Oneness, i.e. a harmony of coinciding opposites. This passive first dialectical division between essence of being and existence of essences is followed by an active second dialectical division between likely states (order) and unlikely states (chaos). In short, all these imperfections are demanded by being itself for only because of imperfection is the nondelimited perfection of the Real made possible. For all otherness is imperfection. The continuity of being does not abrogate discontinuity.

(Ax9) : Due to the exercise of free will, the fullness of being is disrupted in local regions of spacetime and hence the introduction of emptiness into the fabric of the unreal is fact.

The cloud of freedom involves nothing less than the probability of chaos or the possibility of the presence in actual things of a non-determinated choice different than the pre-determined order of events. Divine Existence is the Oneness of either noble or base, but creation is prepared in the cloud as a mixture of both. The cloud of freedom is the probability that maybe more base will be used than demanded by Divine pre-determination, introduced as chaotic events by actual things.

This valuation & polarisation of being is such that order and chaos, perfection & imperfection are both made possible and balanced in the perfect state of the world, i.e. its most likely state realised when all its actual things are what they were in Divine Existence before they became part of manifest being. Here the utmost veil is reached. 

Although the Creator is a perfectly actualized Archetype containing all other Archetypes, the first actual thing exclusively creates order and so exclusively creates noble actual things. The Creator Knows the base Archetypes but does not create any locus for their manifestation except as a non-determinated choice given to (essentially orderly) actual things. If a creature exists in concert with its essence, then all is pre-determinated. Disorder or chaos is made possible, even probable (although unlikely) by the power of free movement away from the alloted course of events. So we are only free to do evil not good (the latter happens anyway).

(Ax10) : The perfect state of the beings will always be realised ; no void persists.

The perfect state of the world is unveiled to those who know themselves and hence materialise their own Self. This means that through Self-realization the seer become consciously aware of the Divine Oneness which also assumes the seers own Self, i.e. the seers own eternal object, given in each instant to the interval of being. These perfect(ed) humans see the perfect Earth in every instant. For them, there is no other instant than the one of the Absolute event. This is shortly lived (here) in all of eternity (there) by each one of them and through the preparedness given as their Selves. Clearly they are able to alter the allotment, causing changes in the qualities & the spatiotemporality of the events. This extraordinary freedom is the spontaneous outcome of the middle path, the prescriptive command of the Creator of each world. Hence only the perfected ones are truly (really) free.

 The CREATOR 

The Creator is the first actual creative thing of a world and a Divine Archetype in the Consciousness of the Majesty of the Worlds. The Creator, who is Perfect in the Station of Creation, is the first complete Self-realization of all actual things pertaining to a particular world. This is the Self belonging to the Archetype of a world as a whole. The Creator fashions the first instant of the world out of this Archetype and recreates the complete world in each instant.

Creation is an order of actual things holding together because of the Real. For there is no actual thing which does not possess (by the interval of being) its own unique eternal object in the Real Divine Consciousness. For all Archetypes are mere relationships between Sheer Being and the worlds. Hence, they are unreal. Likewise, their properties (the eternal objects) are -if left by themselves- also unreal. Exclusively because of the Oneness of the Divine Existence of the Majesty of the Worlds does relative existence hold together in being Real. Only the Majesty of the Worlds is able to pacify the latent dialectical tensions between the Archetypes by virtue of the Oneness. This Majesty is therefore more than relationships with creation, for what is the difference between the essence of Oneness and the Unity of essential being ? 

(Ax11) : The Creators of the being of the worlds are the only Real existing things.

The Firstness of the Creator is a trace of the Oneness of Divine Existence, but pertains to one world only (whereas the Oneness involves all the worlds). The former is the actualisation of one Archetype as first cause of a world whereas the latter makes all possible Archetypes One, making the Majesty of the Worlds supreme cause of all the worlds. This Majesty is the focus of Divine Consciousness, the truly Absolute I.

The world is continuously recreated by its Creator, the first cause of the actual worlds over which the cloud of freedom hangs. This Creator is the perfect actualisation of one Divine Archetype of the Divine Life of the Majesty of the Worlds. As there are an infinity of Archetypes in Divine Existence, each world is limited by the pre-determinations of its Archetype. As each Archetype contains all other Archetypes (from the particular perspective of the relationship -given by the Archetype- between Sheer Being and creation), each Creator-Self of a world has a particular mode of creatively expressing the noble Archetypes, and ranking (valuating) the probable outcomes of the possibility of imperfection (the base) as a result of a non-determinated choice (shaping loci of manifestation for the base Archetypes).

Each Creator-Self singles out the noble and the base and projects the latter as possible imperfection in the cloud of freedom, the possibility given to actual things to choose not to actualise the interval of their being and hence break away from their allotment and eternal object. All this to find that Real freedom is unlike that. In chaotic unreality they experience a playground limited by the eternal potential of their own Selves and their unavoidable pre-determination (at the end of the allotment of the events of the world and its return to a perfect state) as parts of Divine Existence encompassed by the Oneness of the Majesty of the Worlds. So eventually even the worst of the worse returns to its original perfect state.

The Creators are Real because of their Firstness encompassing all actual things relative to their world. This Real mirrors how Oneness of Divine Existence involves all Archetypes relative to all worlds.

 The unreal modes 

Every otherness is an unreal mode of being. Nothing is as the Real. How can the realization of one's own Archetype be Real ? How can a mere relationship between Sheer Being and the worlds convey the  being-without-why of all being, i.e. its TRUTH ? Real is the Oneness of the Majesty of the Worlds which makes every Archetype part of Divine Consciousness. So it is only because my Self is Known as a relationship in that One Existence that my spirituality is Real. It is only because the Majesty of the Worlds assumes my eternal object by making all Archetypes One, that my Self is a door and the Most High its opening. 

The events of the worlds are pre-determined by their Creator (the Archetype of the world) and the eternal objects which are the properties of relationships between Sheer Being and the worlds. These events are unreal, for the Archetypes are not the essence of being, nor are they absolutely Absolute (each Archetype is limited by its own essential mode of Self-disclosure). This unreality remains only probable (not actual) as long as all actual things follow the law of their own eternal object. When this happens, they turn their part in the probability of imperfection into their place in the perfect state of the world.

This perfect state is the perfect actualisation of the Archetype of the world and the perfected actual things of the world (the harmony between their eternal objects and the eternal object of the world). So the Self-realization of each actual thing engenders the perfect state of the world which is wholly part of the Majesty of the World (being Known as such through the Archetypes involved).

The creative command of the Creator can not be negated. However, the prescription made by the pre-determination at the level of the Archetype of the world is the valuation of all probable events guiding the seers to Self-realise their Archetype in the light of the noble Archetype of the world. If denied (as a result of free choice for evil or the manifestation of base eternal objects), the actual thing breaks away from what is expected and imperfection enters actuality. Only then do the base Archetypes find loci of manifestation. This actual imperfection is the chaos of the world. It lies not in the Will of the Majesty of the World (harmonizing the base Archetypes in Divine Existence and mirroring them as probable imperfection in creation) to create base worlds. As no base Creators exist, no imperfection is necessary except as probability and a non-determinated choice. However, as chaos is an actual thing, a lot of actual things prefer to turn away from their own law or manifest their own essence.

(Ax12) : In the perfect state of the world the unreality of the modes of being is done with and a translucent being radiating in the presence of the Majesty of the Worlds pertains.

In a sense all actual things are unreal insofar as they break away from their alloted place in the perfect state and more and more depend on their egology & the willed malicious negation of the prescriptive command of their Creator and their own Self. Because absolute nothingness does not exist, no actual thing on its own withstands this whithering of its own essence and so an empty shell is what is left over. As absolute annihilation is impossible, even these shells will finally return to life and realise their law. In a sense all unreal actual things are Real insofar as they (expressing their essence or returning to express it) are part of the perfect state of the world and hence Known by the Majesty of the Worlds. This wholly depends on their submission to the prescriptive command.

 Chaos 

Actual chaos always involves complex, aperiodic, irregular, not completely predictable, not entirely erratic, a little determinable, non-linear movements of natural & artificial actual things, movements which are dependent of small changes in the initial conditions, leading up to the exploration of a very large number of dynamical possibilities outside the pre-determination of the eternal objects & the Archetype of the world.

(Ax13) : Chaos has no creator and exemplifies the unreality of unreal being, i.e. its freedom to turn away from the Self and to be imperfect by relinquishing the perfect state.

All chaotic movement is the outcome of a non-determinated choice.

Because actual things exercised & exercise their non-determinated choice, the actual worlds are a mixture of order & chaos. The noble Archetypes manifest in the fixed architectures of order, whereas the base find loci of manifestation through probable imperfection & the free will of actual things in erratic movements sustaining an illusionary fabric. The perfect state of the world contains but the perfected order of the Archetype of the world and an odd concert of absolutely predictable movements. The cloud of freedom contains chaotic probabilities and a non-determinated choice. The Oneness of the Majesty of the Worlds encompasses the base as well as the noble Archetypes.

Near Firstness primordial actual things come together. These primordial beings gather the actual traces of the Archetypes through their lenses and so the unreal is made to seem real and projected as such downwards. These projections are the veils introduced to create manifest variety.

Most primordial beings are the messengers of the Creator, others (the archons) are beings of becoming and so friends of darkness who willingly add a second to their own being as actual thing, namely the cloudy projections of their own free wills. Their chaotic being is a compound of actual being and the mists groping around it. These satans (producing conflicting pseudo anti-orders) willingly proclaim their own pseudo-divinity and enslave other actual things by the Divine attraction emanating from the Archetypal sparks they chain, misuse and -in vain- try to absolutely destroy. So even the demons of the lowest hell have reasons to be perplexed.

(Ax14) : The Majesty of the compression of Divine Existence leaves its most powerful traces in the realm of the unreal.

Nothing but the trace of Oneness, the Real Firstness of the Creator, guarantees the absence of coloration which is the necessary precondition to open the door of the worlds of mystery. For only when the powerful forces of the archons, the chaotic whirlpools within creative being, are countered by silence, concentration & observation without interpretation, may the soul -at the Station of Creation- be uncolored glass containing the Water of Life and so proceed to the Station of No Station. Then Real Firstness leads to the Majesty of the Worlds.

The friends of darkness have corrupted the world, caused more suffering than necessary and tried to erect barriers to stop or slow down the powerful flow of the Water of Life. They are the ones that changed and change the allotment of this world and end up in the cool fire of the concert of base Archetypes. They are metaphysical evil. Are they the reason why a multitude of seers revealed and reveal their laws, all laws pointing the Firstness of the Creator and the Oneness of the Majesty of the Worlds ?

Let the person without sin throw the first stone. Am I out of reach of moral evil ? Only my Self is the form through which the Majesty of the World Knows this requital. Nothing outside will suffice. If however, we produce "our" Self and declare all the rest evil, then we end up with enough weapons to destroy all actual life on Earth several times. And this malice has no principle ? 

Chaos only absence ? Clearly not. Chaotic being is a clouded actual thing.

(Ax15) : To gather the traces of Majesty only leads to the perfect state of the world if they are not kept for the sake of the unreal but used to liberate the beings by guiding them in the straight path, which unveils to them their respective eternal object.

Actual things are protected by their own law only. There is no other way in matters of soul & spirit. Let the prescriptive command "Do" of each Self be a warning to those who seek it.

 Seek Not ! 

The Self of each actual thing is an eternal object Known by the Majesty of the Worlds as an unmanifest potentiality. The Knowledge of the Oneness is complete in Divine Existence understood as a whole and all at once (which is the Real situation). However, on the Mirror of Self-disclosure (which functions as a Self-created Divine Exterior within the Interior of the Absolute) only actuality appears (on the illusionary "other side" of the Mirror) and this actuality is only perfect if the world returns to its perfect state of actualized Archetypes. Hence the Knowledge of the Absolute is actualized through the creations of Divine Will (i.e. through the worlds). Through the worlds, the potential Knowledge of the Oneness is actualized, and what was mere potential relationship between the Absolute and the worlds became actualized as a unique perfected object and Known as an actualized eternal object.

(Ax16) : The goal of creation is to actualize all potentiality so as to disclose the hidden treasure of Divine Existence to the Divine for the sake of the Divine, i.e. all possible being oned by the Consciousness of the Majesty of the Worlds.

He who seeks the Self does not exist in the Self. The act of seeking the Self is pointless. How to cage a flying bird ? Why seek the carpet if one is standing on it ? The dunkey is moved by the carrot but is also moving the carrot. What kind of person does not give the dunkey its carrot ! The general form of the prescriptive command of each Self therefore is : "Do". For each actual thing this means : "Do thy Self". To really "Be", nothing more than "Do" is needed.

To seek the Self is to be ego. The ego can only surrender to its servitude. Even then the Self may not appear. All this is a matter of the unique law of each unique Self. Nevertheless, no servitude works without suffering. The servant eventually serves with gratitude without asking why. For not the service is important, but the fact that one may serve. 

(Ax17) : To seek the Self is to deny its presence any form of actuality.

All this is not seeking. It is the extinction of the denial of the prescriptive command of the Self and the final return to the state of perfection of one's own eternal object. Change starts at the level of doing. To realise the Self is to actually walk. And those who walk leave the past and superfluous actual things behind. To enter a new space means to leave another. This is very difficult, for all actual things are chained to their worlds by their own past & present imperfections.

To know my Self is to do what my Self prescribes for me. Never seek but act. 
However, what to do ?

 Drink the Water of Life 

Observation without interpretation is not unlike pouring water in an uncolored glass or letting a top diamond float in brilliant light. Only if the clouds of chaotic being dissipate is such purity of seeing actual. In the perfect state of the world observation is so transparant that Divine Existence is witnessed in all perfected things. Hence, the interval of being is absolutely lucid and the eternal objects of all actual things are directly prehended by the perfected things (who nevertheless are not Divine).

(Ax18) : Always observe the immediate for the interval of being is always revealed but remains hidden as long as the doors of observation remain closed because of interpretation.

The unity of being is like the Water of Life which embraces, prevades and runs through all beings, even penetrates into the narrowest corners of the world, and even flows into chaotic being. This Water of Life implies more than actual things and their free choices. The metaphor refers to all of being, i.e. absolute and relative being seen as a totality. Just like water can not be stopped or restricted, though it is able to assume every kind of form, Being is complete, whole and all-encompassing. 

The absence of absolute nothingness in Being being the final glorification of this unity.

Seek not but drink the Water of Life. By virtue of the instant no two moments are identical. So every instant offers the interval enabling consciousness to witness its eternal object. This object is the transcendent ground of actual being, and contains all potentialities given to an actual being (receiving it as a certain preparedness). This eternal object is an unreal relationship which leads to a prehension of the Real noble Firstness (of the actual world) and of the Real Majestic Oneness (of all the worlds).

(Ax19) : To see that all is its truth is the Station of No Distinction of the Water of Life.

The rule of the saints : 
Fully Be ! by doing what your own Self prescribes without yourself (thanks to your ego's submission to His relevations) as a unique perspective on the nobility of the Creator and the Majesty of the Worlds ; He who as The God Knows you by assuming your eternal object, your wholeself and who is always greater than your Self and the only final judge about all matters on earth and in heaven.

Praise be to the Firstness of the Creator of the world.
Praise be to the Majesty of the Worlds.
All praise be to Allâh, the All-mercifull, All-compassionate.