Often associated with transitions in life, liminal space is a phrase that suggests the mystery of being in between the known and the unknown, a psychological or spiritual turning point. It can also suggest a life passage that heralds radical change. Sometimes it leads to a pilgrimage into our own sorrow and the emergence of heart-felt wisdom from the depths of loss.
The word "liminal" is derived from the Latin word “limen,” which means “threshold.” There are dozens of essays available online that tackle liminal space on different levels, from the physical space we inhabit to something more sublime. For example, if you walk out of a dark cave into bright sunlight, you cross a visible threshold from one physical space to another.
Similarly, if you have a moment of spiritual awakening that conveys a clear insight, it can be said that you've crossed an unseen inner threshold that may bring a deeper understanding of yourself and your relationship with the whole of life. It's this way of approaching liminal space that interests me the most because in moments of not knowing, when the mind is quiet, we are receptive to a more subtle dimension of awareness that is timeless.
These moments occur spontaneously when the thinking mind recedes and then suddenly a direct perception flashes like lightening. This may happen in the simplicity of gazing into a child's playful eyes, or looking at a majestic snow-capped mountain, luminous in morning light.
One moment we are in an ordinary state of mind, and then in the next moment there is stillness, and with it, the act of actually seeing without the filter of thought. Time comes to halt, and the "me" has disappeared. There is union, no "otherness."
The apparent gap between those two moments is not a boundary, but rather a sudden immersion into the beauty of the Now, the present moment. It's an interior transformation that reminds us of what is possible -- an awareness that transcends conflict and brings inner peace.
In this silent awareness, we are, as Krishnamurti put it, "a light to ourselves."
Such moments can show us, however fleetingly, that there is no "other" and from that realization, compassion for ourselves, for people we know and don't know, and for every life-form on Earth can flourish. Without the flourishing of compassion, our world is stuck in conflict and endless war. Compassion has been message of all great sages.
Liminal Space can be viewed conceptually as a way of expressing in words what is wordless -- the encounter of a more subtle dimension of awareness, where the known and the unknown intersect.
In a moment of total awareness, when one's entire being is engaged in seeing and listening, the known is subsumed into the unknown.
The "me" disappears in a moment of direct perception in which time ceases. There are no boundaries of any kind in this moment of unity.
We find inner peace in communion with the natural world.
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