“be empty of all mental content, of all imagination and effort”
William Barrett, author of The Irrational Man (1958), demonstrates how Nothingness means different things to different people. “As a matter of fact, human moods and reactions [emphasis added] to the encounter with Nothingness vary considerably from person to person and from culture to culture. The Chinese Taoists found the Great Void tranquilizing, peaceful, even joyful. For the Buddhists in India, the idea of Nothing evoked a mood of universal compassion for all creatures caught in the toils of existence that is ultimately groundless. In the traditional culture of Japan the idea of Nothingness pervades the exquisite modes of aesthetic feeling displayed in painting architecture, and even the ceremonial rituals of daily life. But Western man, up to his neck in things, objects and the business of mastering them, recoils with anxiety from any possible encounter with Nothingness and labels talk of it as ‘negative’—which is to say, morally reprehensible. Clearly, then the moods with which men react to this Nothing vary according to time, place, and cultural conditioning; but what is at issue here is not the mood with which one ought to confront such a presence, but the reality of the presence itself.”[i]
Barrett was speaking of the natural realization of the illusion inherent in Paradigm-B and the paradigm shift from the material world (P-B) to “Nothingness” (P-A). Paradigm-A is “not a thing, not a process, not a quality, not an entity—it is ultimately unqualifiable—it is ultimately pure Emptiness.”[ii]
Emptiness is a central teaching in Mahayana Buddhism which says that the “everyday dualistic world of appearances (relative or conventional reality) and absolute or ultimate reality (emptiness) are not separate but one.”[iii]
“In the context of Paradigm-A when mystics say ‘there is nothing out there’ [emptiness] they of course don’t mean there is no bird in that tree when we can all see there is a robin sitting on a branch in that cottonwood in plain sight. What they mean is that if we attempt to build a solid and substantial worldview on the foundation of that tree and that robin, we are headed for trouble. Why? Because if we identify with something as ephemeral and insubstantial as physical and ideational form we will be left empty-handed; we will be deriving our identity from a pseudo-reality that will leave us bereft and filled with fear.”[iv]
“The Simple Reality Project has articulated a worldview of Oneness providing a context for the True Self to be revealed and a [Point of Power] practice wherein the phenomenal [material] world is transcended. Then the tranquilizing, joyful and peaceful world of ‘nothingness’ can be experienced. So the next time we hear the question, Is that a thing? we can relax and say, No, nothing is.”[v]
Insight # 9 comes to us from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981). He was a Hindu teacher of non-dualism (Oneness).
“The window is the absence of the wall and it gives air and light because it is empty. Be empty of all mental content, of all imagination and effort, and the very absence of obstacles will cause reality [Truth] to rush in.”[vi]
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Additional Reading:
- Nothingness, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
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[i] Barrett, William. Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy. Garden City New York: Doubleday, 1958, p. 285.
[ii] Wilber, Ken. A Brief History of Everything. Boston: Shambhala, 1996, p. 225.
[iii] https://tricycle.org/beginners/buddhism/what-is-mahayana-buddhism/
[iv] Henry, Roy Charles. “There’s Nothing Out There!” Science & Philosophy: The Failure of Reason in the Human Community, 2015, p. 94.
[v] Henry, Roy Charles. “Nothingness.” The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2. May 2018, p. 12.
[vi] Maharaj, Sri Nisargadatta. I Am That. Durham, NC: The Acorn Press, 1973, p. 260.
