The mystical Beginning

In the course of writing this book there were times of paradoxical riddles that gave me much joy, and moments of insight that bordered the mystical. Of all of these precious instances, one that stands out and will stay in my mind for a long time, was my experience while reading Heidegger: "The beginning is not something dependent on the favor of these thinkers, where they are active in such and such a way, but, rather, the reverse: the beginning is that which begins something with these thinkers—by laying a claim on them in such a way that from them is demanded an extreme retreating in the face of Being. The thinkers are begun by the beginning, "in-cepted" [An-gefangenen] by the in-ception [An-fang]; they are taken up by it and are gathered into it." (Heidegger, M., 1992, pp. 8-9). As I mentioned in the Preface, the ideas that I have attempted to explore in this book invaded my thoughts while writing poetry (Far Pitched Tents, 2011). Upon reading Cusanus and Eriugena, I recognized several of my as yet undifferentiated thoughts. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1495336220 While working on my book on Gregory Palamas at the monastery of Megisti Lavra on Mt Athos I had similar glimpses of evanescent reality. Palamas on Prayer is poetry! Sadly, abbot Prodromos brutally attacked me and ordered me to leave.