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Yesterday upon the stair, I saw a man who wasn't there.
And he wasn't there again today.
Gee I wish he'd go away!
As a philosopher I can talk a lot about nothing. But I will try to contain myself and just say this: Amongst my myriad pontifications, I have occasionally found myself distinguishing between "reality" and "actuality." Some "things" (that are not really "things") can be real, even though they do not actually exist. "Possibilities" fall in this category. A possible world does not actually exist (until or unless it is actualized) but it is still "real" in the sense that it must be explicitly accounted for in the math of quantum theory (which is a highly successful theory).
The path not taken by an electron must be accounted for. The possibility was real, even though it was never actualized.
Words like void and emptiness are used to describe a place where nothing exists. Does such a place really exist or is it a figment of our imagination?
It may depend on context.
There may be a finite range of "things" the absence of which is defined as void.
"There is nothing in my closet." Context is clothes. But air, dust etc are in there.
There is nothing between the earth and the moon. No water, not much heat. But there are electromagnetic waves of energy including light.
Is there a place in the universe that light or other EM has not reached (yet)?
What about a volume of space that has zero energy and zero mass within it? Does it exist? If there is no mass and no energy in it, is that absolutely void?
Words like void and emptiness are used to describe a place where nothing exists. Does such a place really exist or is it a figment of our imagination?
In "Never-ending Story," when they talk about "The Nothing" coming and taking everything away, they say, "They didn't even leave a hole. A hole would be something. All they left . . .was nothing!"
There are certain types of Zen meditation in which one "empties" the mind. The "mind" itself no longer exists, and "nothingness" becomes it's replacement.
Yes, says June: "Nothingness" exists. She's experienced it when she used to engage in Zen meditation.
There are certain types of Zen meditation in which one "empties" the mind. The "mind" itself no longer exists, and "nothingness" becomes it's replacement.
Yes, says June: "Nothingness" exists. She's experienced it when she used to engage in Zen meditation.
I would characterize the "nothingness" of Buddhism as "interdependence of all things" - which implies that there are no "things" in the ordinary sense of independent essences. If a "thing" is something that we imagine could exist by itself, then our imaginations are merely abstract and misleading. There are no things. There is no thing that "is what it is" independent of the rest of the universe. We typically think of our minds as things in this way. We imagine that we could exist, even if the rest of the universe didn't. This image of "things" is deeply mistaken, according to Buddhism. To "experience nothingness" is to fully realize that the "self" is nothing apart from the fully interdependent World Itself. And the World Itself is also not a "thing."
The difficulty in talking about this idea in rational terms is what leads to so many of the infamous Zen paradoxes. Nothingness is not "nothing"!
Another way to define "nothing" is "that which defines something." Just as the empty space to a sculpture needs to be there in order for the shape to exist, nothingness needs to be there to define somethignness.
There are certain types of Zen meditation in which one "empties" the mind. The "mind" itself no longer exists, and "nothingness" becomes it's replacement.
Yes, says June: "Nothingness" exists. She's experienced it when she used to engage in Zen meditation.
Take gentle care.
June7th, was it your experience that when you did the meditation and cleared your mind of all thought, you also lost the sense of feeling separate (detached) from everything else around you (as Gaylenwoof suggests)? I think that our active mind creates that sense of separation from the world around us.
My experience during that type of meditation is, that just being a "witness" without the thinking process engaged, I have a better sense of integration with all the things around me. So in that sense, as Gaylenwoof said, nothingness is not "nothing"......... maybe it is "everything."
When I posted this thread, I was thinking about the idea of 'nothingness' from a cosmological viewpoint, but I like how all these other aspects are being brought into it.
I get your idea on the cup. But, the first thing I thought of was; "what?!?! an empty beer mug isn't useful at all when i'm trying to watch a game".
Yeah, that's where the entire Zen thing falls apart...I just can't envision sitting in front of a wall for several years without a few brewskies, either!
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Yeah, that's where the entire Zen thing falls apart...I just can't envision sitting in front of a wall for several years without a few brewskies, either!
