The Realm Beyond the Mind: The Innate Experience of Transitional Space and the Potential Space of Primordial Timeless Awareness

The Realm Beyond the Mind: The Innate Experience of Transitional Space and   the Potential Space of Primordial Timeless Awareness

Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D. Diplomate in Clinical Psychology, ABPP

Washington Center for Consciousness Studies and The International Center for Phenomenological Consultation

Beyond Our Mind

There are Two Ways of Knowing. There is our Representation Mind knowing phenomena and there is our Primordial Awareness Directly and Non-Conceptually knowing the Being of Phenomena.

Donald Winnicott the brilliant English psychoanalyst introduced phenomenological ontology into English psychoanalytic Object relational understanding  and praxis. He introduced Being into psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and practice.

Winnicott introduced the existential psychoanalytic understanding of the ontologically phenomenological   language of  Transitional Awareness and Transitional Space and Potential Space as Our natural experiential Existential Opening into our Direct  Phenomenological Ontological Knowing of Being and Experiencing Being and Embodying Being.

This ontological doorway of Transitional Awareness opens for us our experiential entrance into our lived luminous  ontological experienced of Being and Being fullness. When we are located in our mind alone, our direct experience of Being and the Being of phenomena is foreclosed. Winnicott understood that our mind can make an amazing Transition and in this Transitional Space  can enter into  the

ontological  Beingfull dimensional that becomes apparent within  our Transitional space of Awareness  where in our inner most awareness is self-manifesting  and we can directly  experience the Felt Sense of our Being and the Beingfullness of human beings as well as other beings, including beingfull animals and even beingfull nature..

When asked when does a Baby have  continuity of self, Winnicotts response was when the baby has an ongoing sense of continuity of Being and Beingfullness. For Winnicott our sense of self is our sense of our Being and our Beingfullness.

Donald Winnicott describes this profound experiential realm of our Direct and  Non- Conceptual Experiential Knowing of the Being and the Being fullness of phenomena that is beyond our Representational State of Cognitive Mind.

Thus the Non- Conceptual Pre Reflective Foundational Luminous Field of Transitional Awareness that   further opens for us the Profound Experience of “Potential Space.” This experience of Potential Space is our Being in the experiential Place of Pure Being and Pure Being fullness.

This Realm of Potential Space is our ontological experiential dimension of our Non- Conceptual Spacious Knowingness of Pure Being both within us and around us. This Experiential Actuality of Potential Space is our profound experience of our Direct  Non-Conceptual Experiential  Knowing of the luminous Being of Phenomena.

Our Two Ways Of Knowing

And so, there are Two Ways of Knowing. Our mind knows phenomena and our awareness knows the Being of phenomena. Moreover, our mind knows dualistically, and our awareness knows non dualistically. Dualistic knowing is our Subject Object Knowing within the Non- Dualistic Knowing of our Knowing of our Direct Union  within the Non Dualistic Mysterious  Union of Oneness taking place within a Dualistic Context. This is the Mysterious Conjunctio that the Archetypal Mystics speak about.

This understanding of the two ways of knowing the phenomena and the Being of the phenomena is also elaborated by contemporary phenomenology such as Heidegger and Maurice Merleau Ponty to name a few. This understanding has influenced many contemporary forms of  existential phenomenological psychotherapy such as Gestalt Psychotherapy and most forms of Existential

Psychoanalysis. This profound understanding of our two ways of knowing is deeply elaborated in  the Dzogchen Tradition found within Tibetan Buddhism and also within the Kashmir Shaivism tradition found within  Hinduism.

The Dzogchen Tradition calls this Direct Perceptual Knowing of the Being of phenomena Gnosis or Jnana. The word Yeshe, Jnana and Gnosis reflects this direct non- conceptual, non- dualistic experiential knowing. This Gnosis, this Jnana, this Direct Experiential knowing Brings us into the Mysterious Conjunctio which is the Being of beings in Union and amazingly the Being of the world in Union.

Yes, our representational psychological mind knows phenomena and through and within our Transitional Space of Awareness, we can experience our direct non- conceptual experiential direct knowing of the Being of phenomena.

In Winnicott’ work our experience of Transitional Space is our opening of our direct knowing of the Field of Being. Our experience of Potential space is our felt sense of direct knowing, our direct experiential knowing the field of Being and the Being full   experience of Being.

Transitional awareness and Transitional space experientially opens for us our non-conceptual  knowing and our becoming the interactive energetic Field of Being and the Being of beings.  This Transitional Awareness knows the Potential Space of Being. Potential Space is the Space of Being. Potential Space is infinite in its horizons vast and even multidimensional. Potential Space is the Space of Self manifestation and ultimately self liberation.

This Potential Space is the Space of Becoming and is the Space of Pure Creativity of Self- Manifestation. This Potential Space is the Ontological Opening of Our Being as Primordial Source. Our experience of this innermost Potential Space of our own inner most Being full awareness as our Primordial Source of our Self Manifestation of Being. This experience of Potential Space is Psychological and is the Ontological Source of our Being full self-manifestation of Being in the world.

This Opening of field of Potential Space is the Space of Pure Ontological Creativity. This personal Potential Space is both psychological and ontological. This potential space is the place of Pure Potentiality that can be activated and bring forth the Being of our own Being and even the Being of Others.  This is also the

source of the Power of Transmission. This power of the Transmission of the field of Being in others is the Great Compassion,

This Potential Space is the Opening of our experience of the Three dimensions of our own Being and Being itself . The Three dimensions are:  our ordinary life world experience of Being; our archetypal dimension of Being and finally the experience of our primordial awareness as Source as the Ground of Being. This doorway is the doorway our personal awareness into each of these Ontological and Being full dimensions of experience.  Our personal awareness is a manifestation of the Ground of Being.

This place of Potential space is also the opening to the archetypal dimension of our own Being full existence. This the primordial archetypal dimension of our living experience and the manifestation of the archetypal luminous cosmological dimension of human experience. And finally, this place of Potential Space is the place of our own awareness in ordinary time. This is the place of our ordinary life world and our ordinary interpersonal world of relational life.

The experience of Potential Space at each level or dimensions of existence transforms our experience at each level from an exoteric objectified dimension to the esoteric inner most dimension of Being and Being fullness.

Our Direct Non- Representation Experiential Knowing of luminous Being and luminous Being fullness within our Pure experience of Being within our self and within the ontological self of others. Most importantly within our own inner most sense of Ontological Being full knowing is our sense of our own creative potentiality of Being as a Human Being.

This Transitional Space of Direct Non- Conceptual Knowing  is both the space of the actuality of Being and also the SPACE of the Pure  Potentiality of our human Being fullness in Time and in Timelessness Awarenes. To experience this dimension of Potential Space is to experience the creative manifestation of our

unfolding sense of self within our self and within the world of Action. Knowledge is Action.

Without Being and withour Being Fullness we are in the Absence of Being and experience the Despair of Being lessness. Without the sense of our Being full Base and the intrinsic Power of our Being of Potential Space, we easily collapse into ontological Absence of growth, creativity and self-manifestation. Without our innermost experience of Pure potential Space, we cannot actualize our inner most potential experience for our self and others. Within Potential Space we can actualize Being and Being fullness. Within the innermost experience of Potential Space we can bring Being into Being fullness and we can self-manifest different forms of Being and Being fullness.

Our sense of Being and ongoing continuity of Being is actually our continuity sense of self, continuity of Beingfull Self.  When Winnicott was asked when does the baby have a continuous sense of self, Winnicott answered when the Baby has a continuous sense of Being and Beingfullness. Yes our ongoing sense of Being is our Ontological Sense of Self.

Winnicotts  language of Transitional Space and Potential Space describes this non conceptual direct experiential knowing of our Being and our  felt sense of our power of Being and Beingfullness  which is  very much beyond our Representational Conceptual Cognitive Affective Mind alone.

This Potential Space of the Felt Sense and experience of the Pure Potentiality of Being is also the potential non conceptual existential ontological Space of our Being as our Beingfull Self. Within Our unfolding of Beingfull Self our sense of Beingfull self-arises out of this potential creative sense of Pure Being and Pure Bringfullness. The Being of Potential Space is Pure Being. Our felt sense of Potential Space is our source of Creativity and our capacity for Bringing forth the actuality of Beingfull experience and Beingfull manifestation and Beingfull embodiment.

Winnicott describes this conceptual knowing as Mind and this direct non conceptual non representational knowing of our Pure Being and our Beingfull experience of Being and Beingfullness within our self and within others as Awareness or Primordial Awareness.  Being is not a simplistic philosophical hypothesis ,  Being is our direct non conceptual experiences of our Being and our

Beingfull  experience as our self and as  the power of Being of the beings within our Beingfull world.

Existential Ontology

Winnicott ‘s  Creative understanding  of our capacity for Transitional Awareness and Transitional Relatedness intertwines both our personal psychology and our innermost experience of our own existential ontological continuity of Being and Being fullness. Transitional Knowingness intertwines both our representational mind and our primordial awareness field of Being Knowing. Our field of awareness knows the field of Being since our Awareness is the field of Being knowing Being.  Transitional Awareness intertwines both our representational mind and our psyche of ontological Beingfull depth and breath of Being and Beingfullness.

Donald Winnicott’s phenomenological understanding of our self radicalizes our sense of self from being a representational picture or cognitive affective schema or a synthesis of disparate psychological part’s to this fluid sense of self as our direct experiential felt sense of ongoing continuity of Being both within us and with the World.

Our direct experiential knowingness through the medium of our  awareness opens for us the direct knowing of the experience of  Being. The experience of Being is for us our sense of natural Spirituality. Our liminal transitional awareness opens for us into the immediate ongoing intimate experience of Being within us and between us and others. This experience of Being is of Being within our very own self and of Being within our very own relational Life as the World.

The Being of Personhood

The experience of Being of our own Being opens for us the experience of Being not only within our self but within other human beings and the Being of the world.

We can experience the Beings of the world both dualistically and non dualistically. We can experience beings through our representational mind as entities and we can experience beings through our direct knowing as Being. We can experience our union with Being through our psychological personal union with another person. In loving this being of this person we actually love Being itself as that person. This knowing of course is experiential knowing and not simply conceptual or representational knowing. Of course belief is not experience. And with experience one does not need belief.

The Schizoid Experience of Beinglessness and Emptiness of Being and Beingfullness.

The Schizoid view of the world is an empty view of a Beingless world. There are many shapes and forms of our schizoid character. Our character is our house of Being. I am using the word character in the existential phenomenological sense rather then as psychopathology. Character here is an ontological reference.

Our character is actually the  manifestation of our lived experience that we live within, and possibly transform from within. We are our character style, Our character  is the house of our Being ,and the house of our Being is our Character. Our character is an existential structure that organizes our lived experience of Being and Beinglessness. Our character reflects how we experience and related to the Being of other human beings. Our character is our medium of relating to the Being of human beings and our own experience of Beingfullness and Beinglessness.

Our Character reflects our Characterological Relationship to Being and Beinglessness.  Our Character Style reflects our embodiment of Being and our relationship to Being within all the various beings we encounter.

The emptiness of our character or the voidness within our character and the sense of Beinglessness within our character can manifest a Schizoid Ontological Quality  of and within our character. This Schizoid Ontological dimension orients us as to how we view and experience the emptiness of Human Beings and the emptiness of our lived experience within others and how we experience the voidness of our own experiential Beinglessness in and of this world and the emptiness within our ontological relationship with other human beings and the world itself.

This foundational experience of Beingfullness or Beinglessness organizes our experience of our world, our life and even our Death. Our ongoing Beingless experience of our self and of others and of the world  is the  ongoing experience of  Ontological Absence. Many religious traditions are preoccupied with the Absence of Being, the Absence of Reality, and the Absence of Self . Thus everything and everyone  is a delusion. There is only Absence. There is only Meaninglessness.

Lived Experience

Our Lived experience of Self is our experience of our Being and our Beingfullness. Our innermost absence of self is our lived experience of absence of inner Being and Beingfullness. When we lack the fullness of Being we will foundationally lack the Fullness of Timeless Awareness within Time.

This Beinglessness will characterize our Being in the world. And within this Beinglessness we experience the absence of intimacy not only within our self but with the world itself.

Transitional Space and Potential Space: Doorways into the Experience of  Being!

By entering into Transitional Awareness we can enter transitional space and enter into the Potential space of Being and  Beingfullness. When we enter our Beingfull Awareness we can experience the field of Being and the Field of Awareness

simultaneously. Being in mind alone can foreclose the dimension of Timeless Awareness and Timeless Being.

When we enter the field of Being which is also the field of experiential awareness we can begin to deepen our experience both of our awareness and the field of Being and Beingfullness. Our mind can not embody Being Directly and our awareness can embody Being directly and when our mind is integrated within our field of awareness  our mind embodies Being.

There is One More Step.

There is one more step into primordial Awareness , primordial Being full Awareness.This  Step is our  Entering into Timeless Awareness Within Time. We can enter Timeless Awareness and we can enter Timeless Awareness within Time. We can Bring Nowness into Timeless Awareness. This experience of Bringing Time Present Time into Timeless Awareness can bring forth states of self liberation within our Present Experience of Time within Timeless Awareness.

If we can enter Awareness and the field of Awareness and Being of awareness we are able to make one more amazing step. We can step into Timeless Awareness. To enter Timeless Awareness we begin to experience Timeless Being and Timeless Beingfullness. There is no past and there is no future and there is Timeless Awareness as Timeless Presence as Timeless Being.

Heidegger’s phenomenology  as well the Dzogchen Phenomenological Tradition focusess on Four times. There is the dimension of past, there is the dimension of the present and there is the future time dimension.  Then there is the Fourth Time which is Timeless Awareness.

Infinity of Timelessness

To enter into Timeless Awareness is to Experience Timeless Being and Timeless Beingfullness. To enter Timeless Awareness is to enter the experience of the Infinity of Timelessness. To enter into Timeless Awareness is to experience Ontological Infinity

.To experience Timeless Infinity is to experience Self Liberation within Time and the Context of Time. To experience Timeless Awareness is to experience the

power of Ontological Metabolization of Time Bound States of Mind. Timeless Awareness is the power of the metabolization of  Time bound states of mind.

To be in Timeless Awareness and to experience the Timeless Infinity of Timeless awareness liberates us from time bound states of experience. Time bound states of mind can be metabolized by the depth and breath of the Luminous Energy and unbound vastness of Timeless Awareness.

Indeterminancy

Moreover, to be in Timeless Awareness and integrate the Nowness of the Present Time is become self liberated as the Nowness of the Present can be metabolized and the Context of the Present can become less determined and containing. The Past Time Bound Events of Time can also be metabolized. And even the Future Time Bound Events can be metabolized. Timeless Awareness introduces the powerful liberating experience of Indeterminancy.  Indeterminancy! This is the ontologically Powerful Experience of Pure Potentiality and The Innate Power of Pure Potential Space. Pure Source.

Moreover, to be in Timeless Awareness and integrating the Experience of the present moment can actually liberate the experience of the Present Moment through the infusion of the Light and The Energy of Timeless Awareness In Time.

The power of Timeless Awareness in Time not only has the power to metabolize states of experience, but can creatively open up the realm of Potential Space and activate and bring into manifestation states of creative experience , creative understanding and creative potentiality. To be in Timeless Awareness in Time is to be in Transitional Space and to be in the Purity of Being of Pure Potential Space which is Pure Being of Creative Beingfull expression and creative Beingfull manifestation.

To be in Potential Space is to be in the Pure State and Pure Power of Creative Beingfullness and Pure Power of Unbound Being and Beingfullness. To be in the Creativity of Pure Potential Space can manifest in the three dimensions of existence. The Pure Potential Space can manifest in our ordinary life world.

The Pure Potential Space can manifest in the Archetypal Dimension of Being manifesting the powers and forms of Archetypal Realms in the  both the Archetypal dimension as well as in our ordinary life world dimension.

And Finally the  Power of Pure Potential Space can manifest as Source and the manifested phenomena of Source. Of course , the ultimate source is our own innate intimate field of Personal Timeless Awareness in Time.

As the  Dzogchen invocation declares May I experience All Phenomena as Source, This of course is the Secret of Self Liberation. Self-Liberation is to experience Timeless Awareness In Time as Source.

Rudolph Bauer Ph.D.Diplomate In Clinical Psychology, ABPP.

The Washington Center for Consciousness Studies and The Center for International Phenomenological Consultation

RESOURCES

Bauer .R. The Absence of Self. An Existential Phenomenological View of the Anatman Experience. Journal of Philosophical Investigations, Vol.13. Issue 28.Fall 2019.

Bauer,R. The Natural Hiddenness of the Luminous Experience of Being within Human Beings. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field.Vol.8.2017.

Bauer,R. Transitional Space: An Opening to the Experiential Realm beyond The Mind: A Phenomenology Beyond The Mind, Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field vol.8. 2024.

Bauer,R. The Direct Experience of Our Ongoing Sense of Beng As Self.Tranmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field.vol 21 2018.  

Bauer,R. The Timeless Interface of Dzogchen and Contemporary  Existential Phenomenology, Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field Vol 2021

Bauer,R. The Phenomenological Drama of Artistic Exoteric/Esoteric  Experience as  Illuminated  by Art. Chapter in Book Art As The Gestation of the Public Spera, Published in the Fall of  2024.

Bauer,R. The Natural Hiddenness’ of The Luminous Experience of Being within Human Beings. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field vol 8.2017

Bauer,R. The Metabolization of Our Experience of Phenomena: A Phenomenological Dzogchen View. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field.vol 9.2024.

Bauer,R. The Timeless Interface of Dzogchen and Contemporary Existential Phenomenology. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field . vol 20 2021.

Bauer,R, The Phenomenological Epoche and the Phenomenological Reduction in Dzogchen and in Contemporary Continental Phenomenology. Transmission: The Journal of the Awareness Field vol 20,2021.

Bauer,r, The Drama of Timeless Awareness In Time: The Essence of Dzogchen A Phenomenological Ontological View. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field,2024.

Bauer,R. Schizoid Existence as The Absence of Being and Beingfullness. Transmission:The Journal of The Awareness Field,2024.

Bauer,R. The Beatific Experience of Being: A Phenomenology of The Charkarasamvara Tantra. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field  2023.

Bauer,R. The Generational Transmission of Trauma and the Terror of Trauma: A Phenomenology of Terror, Transmission: The Journal of the Awareness Field, 2024.

Bauer,R. The Experiential Realm of Energy and Light and The Power of the Metabolization of Phenomenological Experience, Transmission: The Journal of the Awareness Field,2024.

Bauer,R, The Metabolization of Our Experience of Phenomena:Existential  Dzogchen View  Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field,2021.

Bauer,R. MeditationAs Becoming Aware of the Field of Awareness Field 2012.

Bauer,R A Phenomenological Dzogchen View of the Beingfullness of Human Formlessness and the Beingfullness of Human Form,2022.

Bauer,R. Ontological Personalism: A Phenomenological Experience: Transmission: The Journal of the Awareness Field.2022.

Bauer,R, Trauma and The Consquent  Disembodiment of Being Fullness: Transmission: The Journal of the Awareness Field,2022.

Bauer,R. Instinctive Experience, Ego State Experience  and the Unfolding of Ontological Awareness. Transmission: The Journal of the Awareness Field 2023.

Longchenpa, Rabjam. Treasure Trove of Scriptural TransmissionL Padam Publishers 2001 . Translated by Richard Barron.

Longchenpa Rabjam: The Precious Treasury of Genuine Meaning.Berosatsana Publications. Ashland Oregon,2024, Translatede by Lama Choman and Sabgye Kandron.

Muller, Ortega. Paul, The Triadic Heart of Shaiva, State University Press of New York,1989.

Muktananda, The Play of Consciousness. Siddha Yoga Foundation,2010

Erving Polster, Gestalt Therapy Integrated

Namkai Norbu, The Song of The Vajra, Staton Hill Prese,1992.

Winnicott.DW Playing and Reality. Tavistock Publications,1971.

Valby,Jim Translator, Ornament of the State of Samantabhadra, Valby Publications.2013

Boss, Menard Boss. Editor of Martin Heidegger Zollikon Seminars, North Western University Press,2001.

Guenther, Herbert. The Teachings of Padmasambhava,EJ Brill 1996.

Higgens, David, An Introduction into the Tibetan Dzogche  Great Perfection Philosophy, Religioin Compass, Vol 6, wiley Blackwell.

Lingpa, Dudjom  The Vadra Essence Wisdom Publications Translated by Allan Wallace,2015,

Koppel H, Translator 2008 Establishing Appearance as Divinity By Rinzompa, Snow Lion Press.

Capobianco,Richard, Heideggers Way of Being, University of Toronto Press,2014.