Years ago I was deep in meditation when suddenly, I went into a space that was beyond all space, a "place" that completely transcended the subject/object dichotomy. There was no "me", there was not an absence of "me", there were neither objects nor an absence of such nor some in between mixture. Because there was neither "subject" nor "object", it was an absolute state with nothing left to transcend., and it demonstrated to me the end result of the type of meditation that I was doing. After a while, as I began to descend from this state, my first experience was of something like a lightening bolt flashing across the field of my mind-vision, and I suddenly became aware of myself as an "observer" observing a vast see of nothingness. After returning from this peak experience to my usual state of consciousness, I went on to experience a flat tire and an argument with my girl friend all during that same evening.
Subsequent to this seminal encounter, I came to realize that we all have this experience all the time without ever realizing it. Every perception we have points us back to that state that is beyond space and time. As one of my teachers used to ask me several years ago, "At that place where all objects are known, are there any objects?" Every object of our perception rushes like a whirlwind to the center of our awareness and surrenders to the void. And as we examine further, we discover that our consciousness is our entire world. The world inside is also the world without. There is none else.
People who meditate regularly may glimpse this state from time to time even if they don't fully realize it. There are moments when everything collapses into a brief "aha," and then expands again into a world of thought, form, and structure. This is what is referred to as "running and returning." Eventually, one might realize that every moment of life is filled with this oscillation back and forth from the unmanifest to the manifest. It is like the singular instant between the in-coming breath and the out-going breath. Eternity is found in a moment. Beyond this is the realization that there is no going out or coming in, that the form of the ten sefirot is empty, that the sefirot are "without anything." When one arrives at this point, then he will know God in all his ways.
"In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. -Proverbs 3:6"