The void as\is an attitude
I love the void, enjoy the emptiness, and am fully engaged with the nothing.
Does that make me vacuous?
Well, it is an interesting (and ironic) question to which the answer must be ambiguous and non-committal if for no other reason than the void implies a flow, a flux and if so a continuous motion of the mind reflectivity. This results in a continuous movement of thought, of sense and of re-description.
The void is an intelligent state of inherent skepticism about all and everything but more particularly it reflects the need to constantly check one’s beliefs, assumptions and perspectives concerning the world and our perception of it. In short it is self-reflective, open ended, incessantly renewable, and ultimately soft.
In a deep sense it makes a mind indestructible or unconquerable, empathic and compassionate.
So, yes, the void as an attitude result in all the above.
Hence, I love the void.
The void as an attitude is a manner of grasping that permeates the totality of my mind and implies upon everything, it is a positive realization of the situation of the world (primarily its impermanence) and my place in it (as a multiplicity).
To make sense of all this I need go back and explain how I came to love the void.
How I came to love the Void
There aren’t many concepts that are as deep and as wide ranging in their implications and consequences for our lives as the concept of the void.
I view the concept of void as a great and important concept, one of a few that can if perceived correctly and apprehended widely lead us to a fundamental freedom of mind.
As all great concepts need be, also the concept of the void needs re-framing.
Re-framing as a method of thought is a process in which and by which we take a basic concept and as it were, reposition it in a different context of thought. In short, it is a fashion of re-description of a story within a narrative, giving it both a larger span and a wider application.
Moreover, re-framing is a highly efficient tool of mind, used to increase the sight and understanding of a given concept, in the process allowing for fresh insights and deeper grasps.
In the case of Void, the re-framing needs to consider the long history of the concept as well as the common misunderstanding, mis-positioning and ultimate errors involved in this most stimulating concept.
The main error in understanding the concept of void (often traded for emptiness, hollowness, and vacuity) is to equate it with nihilism. Not only is the concept of the void a positive affirmation of life it is in fact the very concept that allows our innate creativity and freedom of choice to unleash itself from the bonds of immediate perception. The concept of void or voidness simply states that there is no intrinsic existence but an inherent relationality. In short, everything is in relation to everything else. That is as true for the cosmos as it is true and relevant to our inner lives. It is as true for particles as it is for our emotions.
All is interdependent.
The void as I use it, is a tool of mind, specifically it is a pervading concept that suffuses the ecology of thought and permeates the sum of our reflections. Moreover, it is a conceptual filter through which everything else passes.
By positing a relationality as the foundation of all that is, reality becomes interrelated, hyperconnected and woven as a huge tapestry of existence.
The term void finds its origin in the Sanskrit term Sunyata (or Shunyata), itself a derivation of the older term Sunya (or Shunya) meaning empty (the Ta means ‘ness’) it was primarily taught as part of the Buddhist tradition and though I am not a Buddhist I have studied the Buddhists teachings for many years. Primarily because of the Shunyata or Void concept. (see Nagarjuna)
My interest was and is to this day deeply enmeshed with the concept of Sunyata, emptiness or void.
An intriguing concept if there ever was one.
I refer to the term as void, which is only one of many possible translations of the term Shunyata, others being emptiness, hollowness, vacuity, vacancy, and nothingness (nothing). Each of these terms could be a synonym to void but I believe that in the process of re-framing a decision must be announced and clarified and so in my case I defer to the void as the most accurate and precise translation of the term.
I understand void in a re-framed manner as a term designating an ecology of thought. A kind of atmosphere or climate to a mindset and not a mindset in itself. The term is a wide-ranging concept that has many derivatives meanings. The term Void may mean several different understandings, it can be seen as a bridging term that has both strategic significance, metaphysical implications, and immediate usage. Each of these aspects is different in inference and consequences for a philosophy that has at its root the evolution of the mind of the individual, in tandem with the evolution of the collective mind.
The void if so, is an attitude born of self-reflection and presenting an immediate (suchness) distance of observation from one’s feelings allowing a clearer sight of that which one is and that which one does.
It creates a fundamental epistemic humility about all that one knows, balancing the certainty of perception (healthy skepticism).
By accepting that everything including our multiple selves are an interrelated situation of the world the mind is free to pursue its self-reflection.
The void reveals the beautiful, enhancing the empathy and cross fertilization of my mind in the world as an active positive (constructed) system.
We are embodied, embedded cognitive, conscious aware systems, able to self-reflect and understand critically the world and our place in it.
And then there’s the irony of it all that when one fully realizes the non-inherent existence of all, the void, there rises forth the fullness of the world and the fullness of our minds.
Well being ensues.
On a more personal note:
Like all beings existing with and within an experiential reality, I have learned that things come into existence and go out of existence. People, emotions, desires, ideas, sensations, motivations, beliefs and yes even loves. It is this impermanence, the very sense of which takes over all other considerations that stayed. Changes in the dynamics of the flow, both personal and non, have deepened my contemplation of the void.
In time these contemplation have led me to love the void.
A never-ending exploration of all that is.
Once I was different, now I am the same.
“The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving. Saves on introductions and goodbyes. The ride does not require an explanation, just occupants. “
Boat Man, Waking Life
Thank you for reading.
