Cover & Preface

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 Illustrated by Stefanie Claes

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Several years prior to writing this book I wrote the following.

An account of creation according to the ego. "On the first day, God hastened to create the Ego because He was wise enough to see that the Ego was far more important than himself. However, God soon noticed that the Ego easily became bored in his company. Therefore, on the second day, He created the world for the Ego’s entertainment. On the third day, the Ego saw that the world was vast and concluded that God had become redundant. Consequently, the Ego sneakily killed God at nightfall, after the world had gone to sleep. On the fourth day, the Ego saw that it was good, crowned itself king of existence and enslaved the world."
So much for the victorious account of creation according to the Ego. After the mysterious and sudden death of God, the world experienced a strange, stark emptiness. The ever-hungry Ego began to gnaw at it more and more. The gnawing turned into eating, and on the fifth day the world began to be devoured at an exponential rate. She cried out in pain, and the never satisfied and ever glutenous ego remained deaf to her suffering. On that dark night, the world died a silent death. On the day after, on the sixth day, the ego was left feeling confused. Lonely, angry and fearful, it spent the day in absolute darkness. On the seventh day, the ego starved and died. Nothing was left. So ends this reading of Genesis.

Homily. In the eyes of the ego, the world was created to provide whatever it needed. In other words, the world is nothing more than its extension. Moreover, the ego wants to have everything, experience everything, and has the idea that it is entitled to lay hold on all that the world has to offer. Maximizing its benefit is its main concern. The ego separates us from the world, creates distinction, division, exclusion, and loneliness.

In this book, you will find another, more hopeful creation narrative. One without a God and without an ego. It is a story about how human experience arises from what is called ‘the source’, about how we can lose touch with that source, and how it can be rediscovered and given a lasting place in our lives.

Across our life span, experiences tend to emerge which serve as signals or signposts to rediscover the source. These signals are not always noticed, because for most people they tend to be rather rare and subtle in nature. Another reason for this is that there is no common language available in the prevalent socio-cultural realm to acknowledge their existence..

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The following story begins with the source. From here, life flows.

Further on, downstream, humans lose touch. Cut off from their own origin, they feel a lack and return upstream in search of what they seemingly have lost.

As soon as they rediscover the source, they live consciously, downstream and upstream, in lively awareness that the source is no different from the stream.

Welcome to the source. Welcome to the dance between consciousness, form and energy.

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I have been listening to the love songs of
Form longing for formless.

What are these energies
Undulating through our bodies
Pulsing us into action?

And this “matter” out of which our forms are made
What are these dancing particles
Of condensed radiance?
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Vijnana Bhairava Tantra
(freely translated by Lorin Roche)