From Darkness To Light

Not: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth..."
or: "In the beginning was the Word..."
but: "The lotus grows from dark places..."

The "darkness of mere being" had four stages:

void
energy
mass
life

- and the light of consciousness also has four stages:

animal motivations
human delusions
spiritual practice
purified consciousness.

Being and nothing, potential and actual, interact in the void. Being emerges from the void and grows towards the light of purified consciousness. Solar energy, inanimate matter and unconscious organisms not only preexisted but also surround and sustain consciousness, which was not in the beginning. Not:

"In the beginning, God..."