We have been inquiring into and exploring divine eros as a force, as an energy that helps us to connect with and recognize the unity, the nonduality, of reality. When we recognize the depth, the absolute nature, of ourselves—of everything—we see that one particular thing that characterizes it is its unity. We recognize reality as one, single and indivisible, and this unites us all in a much deeper way than we anticipate . . . or like to anticipate. The unity of our true nature has many facets, many kinds of depth, and many meanings. It is a unity in many ways, one of which is the oneness, the nonduality, of external forms and the ground of our true nature. Another way is the unity between us as individuals—that we are not separate. That is why, when we chant hu, the secret name of our absolute nature, our ultimate nature, we want to hear it from everywhere . . . because it is everywhere. So we hear ourselves saying it, we hear other people saying it and, if we really become absorbed in the sound and the intimacy of it, the sound itself can take us to the unity. It is possible to recognize as we hear the various voices chanting the sound hu, that not only are we in unison, but it is the unity sounding as many voices. And the unity is expressing itself as one sound, as it is one manifestation. So sound is one way of experiencing the oneness of manifestation. We are part of one sound; our sound is part of the one sound. As we do this, we are participating in the one sound—the absolute nature saying its own name through all of us, because that’s who says it anyway, always and at all times. We think that it is we who are saying it, but actually it is our deepest nature saying it . . . which turns out to be who we are at the deepest level.

The innermost nature of everything which exists is this source and agent of unity. Without it, we wouldn’t be human beings; we wouldn’t be alive. It is the innermost nature of our being; and it is not something vague, but something actually substantial. You might not be aware of it, but without it you cannot read this or understand me right now. You can perceive it. It is amazing that the agent of unification is the same as the agent of transformation, that transformation is transformation towards unity. It is miraculous and mysterious. First it is revealed in experiences of the heart or mind revealing facets, qualities, or aspects. It allows you to see yourself as compassion, love, or clarity, but the way it shows you that is by it, itself, being that. “Hu” becomes, through the brilliance, that which is you. You are learning what is you at that moment. If what you need is enlightenment, it becomes clear light. It teaches first by unifying, by directing your experiences toward more unity. In time it will lead to the inner experience in which it manifests as the agent of transformation itself, the elixir. It is also called the philosopher’s stone and the water of life.

The Sufis use the name “Hu” to refer not exactly to the brilliance, but to the Absolute, the ultimate ground and nature, the void before it is conceptualized as void or space. So we can more accurately say that the ultimate “Hu” is actually beyond color and consciousness. The Absolute is the unity before manifestation, while the brilliance is the manifest unity. We can say that the first manifestation of the Absolute is the brilliance, the inner intelligence. The ultimate is so mysterious that we can apprehend only a brilliance, a radiance as we approach it. This pure brilliance is the first intelligence, the unity from which differentiation arises. It is the beginning.

So far we have explored many of the concepts of “mind.” We’ve looked at the mind as thoughts and as impressions of experience; we’ve looked at the nature of the mind in terms of emptiness and the essential aspects that unfold from this space in the mind, the heart and the will. The natural movement of this understanding is toward unification. We can see the unity of unities by understanding the secret of “Hu.” Unity is called “Hu” in Arabic. So we understand the complete unity if we understand “Hu.” As we follow the unfolding of our understanding and experience we have noticed a movement toward unification. Where is this coming from? Is there a force pushing us toward unification? Is there still a deeper nature of the mind we haven’t yet fathomed? There is that which creates space. That is “Hu,” that is the ground of the ground, the source of the ground. The biggest unity must be what includes the nothingness and the thingness, non-being and being, space and creation, non-existence and existence. That is “Hu.”

So the unity of everything is complete radiance, complete expansion, completely itself. In its final free expression, it is pure blinding brilliance, so blinding that you are effaced. This brilliance can be experienced as a clarity and intelligence, as an exploding intelligence that shatters all darkness and ignorance. At the same time it is pure love, most delicate and soft, and in the same instant the strongest and most powerful will. It is not three different things put together, but all one, the brilliance of the aspects of essence, the source and inner nature of every living thing and of all creation. From this perspective, there can only be unity. As you look at it from outside, before you attain the cosmic consciousness, you see it as brilliance in this or that. But when the separateness is effaced, then you are it, there is nothing else. Then all of existence is just that, and that is the brilliance of “Hu.” When it is in the head you are drunk with sparkling brilliance. Completely drunk and completely awake. Your heart can only sing, can only be transported with the lightness of complete delight. The joy is in praising of Him. You realize, when the brilliance takes you to the unity which is the beginning of everything, that it was always there as you, your deepest nature from the beginning. Even if you look at yourself from the perspective of evolution, even as the amoeba, your innermost nature is “Hu.” It has not only transformed you so that you know it, it has created you so that you know it. It has created you so that you sing its praise. It is beyond experience and nonexperience. The question of observer and observed is completely erased. There is only dancing; the universe as a whole, including its deepest torture, is dancing. These thoughts can’t reach it; it shatters thoughts. Personality is shattered. People glimpse it and faint, disappear. That innermost nature doesn’t see itself as innermost nature. It is the “All” and the “Everything.” It is the fact that is always there in us, that is the seed in us, moving us toward itself.