Daily Meditation: Monday, December 20, 2010

Aïn Soph Aur (from) to Aïn - or the impossibility of des­cribing the Divinity

12/20/2010

For the cabbalists, the Divinity is an entity so inaccessible they place it beyond light and dark, beyond the created worlds. They gave this entity the name Aïn Soph Aur, 'light without end'. And, to take this mystery even further and express it better, they conceived of a region beyond Aïn Soph Aur which they called Aïn Soph, 'without end', and beyond Aïn Soph was Aïn, 'without'. So, at the origin of the universe there is a negative. But 'without', which indicates an absence, a lack, does not mean non-existence, however. Aïn is not absolute nothingness, like some people's idea of the Hindus' nirvana. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. Aïn Soph Aur, like nirvana, is not non-existence, nothingness, but life beyond creation, beyond manifestation, and so far beyond it that it seems no longer to be anything. Aïn Soph Aur, Aïn Soph, Aïn... This is how the cabbalists sought to define the essence of Divinity. It is beyond our understanding, but the words may give us a sense of what cannot be expressed.