Pluto
Meowing to go out
- Dec 27, 2020
- 4,163
A Thread About Nothing
There's nothing to see here. Nothing has value. I care about nothing.
Yet an inherent paradox arises in speaking about nothing, since the very act of making it an object of discussion implicitly converts it into a 'something', yet it is not. Perhaps there is no such thing as nothing, yet here we are. Hence, the words need to be delivered in a more abstract way in order to sidestep this linguistic tragedy of circumstance.
The Science of Nothing
The only point to make here is that at the subatomic level, an astonishingly high percentage of all physical matter is completely empty. Consider that the human body is made of such atoms. Meanwhile, out in the vastness of the universe, again, the overwhelming majority of space is simply nothing.
The Greeks Understood Nothing
Among his most famous quotes/misquotes, Socrates (470-399 BC) said 'I know that I know nothing.' He also commented on the absurdity of being afraid of death, since we know absolutely nothing about it or what comes after. Later Greek philosophers explored skepticism, questioning the very possibility of knowing anything.
I vaguely recall once reading a story, possibly about the great Skeptic Pyrrho (360-270 BC), which may or may not be true. In it, he was travelling with some students one day, but at one point they were heading straight for a cliff! The students grabbed the reigns to prevent disaster, and asked him what he was doing. He replied that he doesn't even know if it would be bad to go over the cliff, or if the cliff is even real.
Buddhism: An Entire Religion About Nothing
Eckhart Tolle quoted a Zen monk who summed up his entire life's understanding in a phrase, "All that arises passes away." In other words, nothing is permanent. In addition to being timeless, nothing is omnipresent and formless. Curiously, these are all the classical qualities of a supreme deity.
In debate, Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna (150-250 AD) claimed to hold no positions on any issue, yet used a technique called fourfold negation to cut down all positions presented to him. This technique rejected all four possible answers to a given question (yes, no, both, neither). So, for example, is there a God? No. So he's saying there is no God? No, he's not saying that. So, there both is and is not a God? No. So there is neither a God, nor the absence of a God? No.
Another way of presenting this is to leave a question as a question, or even reject the question itself - a very un-Western way! What remains is an acceptance of life as a total mystery. A cultivation of inner silence. An energy of surrender. Implicitly, if we are to find anything of value, first we need to give up our old nonsense.
Neti-Neti in Hinduism
'Neti-neti' translates to 'not this, not this'. Understood correctly, it is a technique of negation by which the practitioner describes him or herself in negative terms only - for example, I am not male or female, not young or old, not human or animal, etc. - in order to discard all thought-based identities which create an imprisonment of perceived limitation.
The Ultimate Nothingness
Given that the greatest philosophers and the most insightful religions have such reverence for nothing, all this leads to the ultimate question: is nothing really nothing? Yet with this question immediately arises the aforementioned paradox. We have reached an impenetrable barrier of mental understanding and the intellect can proceed no further. But you are not your intellect, so you may proceed.
At this profound climax, two points can be made. Firstly, nothing is not your idea about nothing, or some mental picture of blankness. That blankness is a subtle thing, an idea or image, so throw it away. Secondly, the answer is summed as, "See for yourself." All the most insightful understandings can only lead you to the edge of the cliff of knowledge. You must bravely jump into the void, give up everything you ever knew and be consumed. I will conclude with a quotation from one enlightened master who successfully made this leap of consciousness and speaks from the other side of it, Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981).
"Discover all that you are not -- body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that -- nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive.
The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realise that you are the limitless being." - Nisargadatta Maharaj
There's nothing to see here. Nothing has value. I care about nothing.
Yet an inherent paradox arises in speaking about nothing, since the very act of making it an object of discussion implicitly converts it into a 'something', yet it is not. Perhaps there is no such thing as nothing, yet here we are. Hence, the words need to be delivered in a more abstract way in order to sidestep this linguistic tragedy of circumstance.
The Science of Nothing
The only point to make here is that at the subatomic level, an astonishingly high percentage of all physical matter is completely empty. Consider that the human body is made of such atoms. Meanwhile, out in the vastness of the universe, again, the overwhelming majority of space is simply nothing.
The Greeks Understood Nothing
Among his most famous quotes/misquotes, Socrates (470-399 BC) said 'I know that I know nothing.' He also commented on the absurdity of being afraid of death, since we know absolutely nothing about it or what comes after. Later Greek philosophers explored skepticism, questioning the very possibility of knowing anything.
I vaguely recall once reading a story, possibly about the great Skeptic Pyrrho (360-270 BC), which may or may not be true. In it, he was travelling with some students one day, but at one point they were heading straight for a cliff! The students grabbed the reigns to prevent disaster, and asked him what he was doing. He replied that he doesn't even know if it would be bad to go over the cliff, or if the cliff is even real.
Buddhism: An Entire Religion About Nothing
Eckhart Tolle quoted a Zen monk who summed up his entire life's understanding in a phrase, "All that arises passes away." In other words, nothing is permanent. In addition to being timeless, nothing is omnipresent and formless. Curiously, these are all the classical qualities of a supreme deity.
In debate, Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna (150-250 AD) claimed to hold no positions on any issue, yet used a technique called fourfold negation to cut down all positions presented to him. This technique rejected all four possible answers to a given question (yes, no, both, neither). So, for example, is there a God? No. So he's saying there is no God? No, he's not saying that. So, there both is and is not a God? No. So there is neither a God, nor the absence of a God? No.
Another way of presenting this is to leave a question as a question, or even reject the question itself - a very un-Western way! What remains is an acceptance of life as a total mystery. A cultivation of inner silence. An energy of surrender. Implicitly, if we are to find anything of value, first we need to give up our old nonsense.
Neti-Neti in Hinduism
'Neti-neti' translates to 'not this, not this'. Understood correctly, it is a technique of negation by which the practitioner describes him or herself in negative terms only - for example, I am not male or female, not young or old, not human or animal, etc. - in order to discard all thought-based identities which create an imprisonment of perceived limitation.
The Ultimate Nothingness
Given that the greatest philosophers and the most insightful religions have such reverence for nothing, all this leads to the ultimate question: is nothing really nothing? Yet with this question immediately arises the aforementioned paradox. We have reached an impenetrable barrier of mental understanding and the intellect can proceed no further. But you are not your intellect, so you may proceed.
At this profound climax, two points can be made. Firstly, nothing is not your idea about nothing, or some mental picture of blankness. That blankness is a subtle thing, an idea or image, so throw it away. Secondly, the answer is summed as, "See for yourself." All the most insightful understandings can only lead you to the edge of the cliff of knowledge. You must bravely jump into the void, give up everything you ever knew and be consumed. I will conclude with a quotation from one enlightened master who successfully made this leap of consciousness and speaks from the other side of it, Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981).
"Discover all that you are not -- body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that -- nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive.
The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realise that you are the limitless being." - Nisargadatta Maharaj
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