All hopes and despairs vanish in the voracious, funneling whirlwind of God. God laughs, wails, kills, sets us on fire, and then leaves us in the middle of the way, charred embers. And I rejoice to feel between my temples, in the flicker of an eyelid, the beginning and the end of the world. I condense into a lightning moment the seeding, sprouting, blossoming, fructifying, and the disappearance of every tree, animal, man, star, and god. All Earth is a seed planted in the coils of my mind. Whatever struggles for numberless years to unfold and fructify in the dark womb of matter bursts in my head like a small and silent lightning flash. Ah! let us gaze intently on this lightning flash, let us hold it for a moment, let us arrange it into human speech. Let us transfix this momentary eternity which encloses everything, past and future, but without losing in the immobility of language any of its gigantic erotic whirling.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- God consumes all hopes and despairs, yet within that destruction the speaker finds the whole world in a fleeting moment.
- In plain terms
- God destroys everything but also lets the speaker see the whole universe in a flash.
- What can you take from it?
- Find the entire universe in a single fleeting moment of insight.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can you hold eternity in a moment?
- What does the spark reveal?
Another view
It relies on rare moments of intensity that are not always accessible.
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