Key words: a glossary

Nearness

Nearness or “letting-oneself-into-Nearness” can be though of as a name for our life as a journey. Nearness does mean a small amount of distance, which is demonstrated by the fact that we in spite of our rapidly evolving technological means to overcome distance are still seeking more nearness. This craving can be due to that the “It” of Being, or the Divine, is inaccessible to ordinary thinking. We can nevertheless approach the nearness of “It” through recollective, poetic thought.

Event

An or the Event can be thought of as a rupture in a continuous flow of perceptions, a moment of recognition and experience, or as a happening that fundamentally reconfigures the coordinates of our lives, as a trauma or as a thoroughly exhilarating moment that strictly divides the “before” from the “after”. A true event is characterised by a rupture in the fabric of our everyday existence which enables us to rethink reality.

Clearing

A clearing is the sense we get when we approach a moment of serenity and profound insight. It is as if we, when walking through a dense forest, unexpectedly arrive at an opening, where the sun is allowed to illuminate the things around us, and the sky opens up to reveal itself. A clearing occurs when something which has hitherto been shrouded in mystery reveals itself, and as such it is the opposite of concealing.

Metaphysical technique

Metaphysical technique is a way to approach the world and other people that reduces them to means to an end. With this way of using technology we become oblivious to the things in themselves, seeking instead to dominate them by bringing the exterior world under our complete control. Thus, this technique serves to conceal the world from us. With metaphysical technique beings are framed and reduced to a standing reserve of undifferentiated resources available to our use.

Void

The void is the negative of that which exists. There is nothing appealing about the void, rather it is repelling. Nevertheless, it remains a mystery to us, such as when astrophysicists ponder the substance and sense of Black Holes in the universe. In this view, the void lies at the core of our existence, an empty space around which our experiences evolve.

Multiplicity

Multiplicity is an often used, but rarely well-defined term. We can think of the multiplicity in an absolute sense as that which undergirds our everyday reality, but which essentially must be repressed or contained in order for us to function well. The multiplicity is chaotic, inconsistent, and disorderly. When at certain moments repressed content from the multiplicity appears it can be experienced as traumatic, gratifying, or exhilarating; in either case such a revealing provides us with an opportunity to recalibrate our reality.