⇐ Part 2: The Reality of Existence
Part 4: The Experience of Existence ⇒

Beyond fana, there is still fana al-fana, the annihilation of the annihilation, which similarly corresponds to Parinirvana. In a certain sense, the passage from one of these degrees to the other is related to the identification of the centre of a state of the being with that of the total being. ~ Rene Guenon, Symbolism of the Cross

The intuition of the unity of existence is often accompanied by blissful experiences. In many cases, there is a strong desire to re-experience that bliss. Oftentimes, people will stumble accidentally onto the intuition of the unity of existence. They may assume their experience is unique and they will talk about the “being one with everyone” and the like.

Like cargo cultists, they will repeat rituals like chanting, dancing, drumming, breathing exercises, extreme ascetical practices, psychedelic drugs, etc., in order to recreate the experience. What all these practices have in common is the attempt to annihilate the ego artificially by tiring it out or bypassing it, rather than through self-purification. In the worst cases, they might resort to sexual practices because the bliss of physical pleasure is thought to imitate the bliss of the higher states.

Megalomania, immorality, and heresy are the fruits of such practices. An esoteric school will guide seekers to avoid such excesses and the exoteric teaching will prevent immorality and heresy. So the next stage requires the annihilation of the annihilation, the disappearance of the consciousness of the ego annihilation. The consciousness of the experience is still not consciousness of absolute Reality.

Although the annihilation is a human experience, the subject is no longer the human state, but the Self revelation of absolute Reality. At the early stage, Reality was concealed and revealed itself only in the things and events of the phenomenal world. At this stage, however, Reality reveals itself as Absolute, i.e., it is unveiled and the manifest world is empty. Guenon describes it this way:

The emptiness is complete detachment from all manifested, transitory and contingent things

Nevertheless, the Being regains his experience of the world, now understood both in its Unity and Multiplicity. Toshihiko Izutsu explains it like this:

He regains his normal, daily consciousness and accordingly the normal, daily, phenomenal world of multiplicity again begins to spread itself out before his eyes. The world of multiplicity appears again with all its infinitely rich colors. Since, however, he has already cast off his own determination, the world of multiplicity he perceives is also beyond all determinations.