MANDALAS OF THE WORLD BOOK

The true center of a circle is a point. A point has neither dimension nor place. Thus, the point withdraws from our perception as well as from our imagination. It does not belong to our world-because in our world everything has extension and dimension, because our world is form.

The point belongs to another order of being. It exists beyond our world. It is metaphysical in the literal sense. The point symbolizes unity, independent existence, perfection— it is therefore in almost all cultures and times also a symbol for God.

The point contains everything, but only in the potential, not in the manifest condition. Circle and globe are born from it; they are forms of revelation of the point. What is still metaphysical potential in the point comes, through circle and globe, into form.

The circle is a point plus dimension; therefore the circle lives through its central point, and is defined by it-even when we cannot comprehend this point. The point and the circle-God and the world-the one and the many— the unmanifest and the manifest-content and form-the metaphysical and the physical-all these terms mean the same.

One need only think of the relation of the seed to the grown plant in order to realize that the whole is already contained in the part. We human beings always need dimensions-the world of visible forms—in order to recognize therein the invisible. Thus we need a body in order to be able to experience our consciousness. The world of the visible is the vehicle that lets us come into contact with transcendence.

God manifests Himself in the world, the Christians would say; and in Buddhist thought Nirvana and Prakriti are identical. Sufi master Ibn Arabi means the same thing when he says: "With certainty nothing else exists but God the Almighty, his qualities and his actions. Everything belongs to him, stems from him, and moves towards him.

Were he separated from the world for the period of the twinkle of an eye, the world would disappear at this mo-ment. The world can exist only through the fact that he preserves it and watches over it. Indeed, he, creates the light, so powerful that it exceeds our capability of percep-tion; and we can only recognize his creation, which disguises him." (Ibn Arabi, Journey to the Master of Power.) Comprehension of this paradoxical connection between reality and illusion can save us from extreme behavior.