breathing

I just read these interesting articles on the Tzimtzum (the Divine contracting in order to make space for the creation). It sounds, from the articles, as if the Tzimtzum only happened once, at the beginning of time - but I thought it was happening all the time, that creation is constantly sustained by the Divine - certainly that is the insight provided by quantum mechanics, that bosons (the 'God particle') are continuously winking in and out of existence. Certainly one of the articles says that the Divine is both immanent and transcendent.

I think (but I'm not sure) that the patterns of Islamic tiles often represent this constant expansion and contraction of the Presence - kind of like breathing.

I was trying to convey a sense of the Tzimtzum in my poem, Thou Godde. I think I managed to convey a sense of the Tzim, but less so the Tzum. I wanted to add something about returning to the source in a breath and then breathing out again, something that conveys the constant flow of inbreath and outbreath, always and everywhere. This poem that I wrote about the Grail almost conveys it, and perhaps this one, The hinge of the door, too. Also, this poem, Resonance (though with perhaps a little too much emphasis on a holistic perspective) was an attempt to convey a Taoist view of the constant dance of being and non-being.

I also want to write something about spirit of place, how the manifestation of spirit is different in different places, and has a distinct personality or identity (but is not a discrete entity).