My Futile Quest to Understand No Self and the Nothingness of Being
An Amusing Perspective on the Nothingness of Being
Can you imagine walking into a Zen center and having the instructor say, “You have no self! Talk about an existential crisis!
One minute, you think you’re normal; the next, you’re plunged into the abyss of the nothingness of being. Who am I if I don’t exist?
The paradoxes start piling up. If I stop thinking, how can I think about not being? How can my “self” let go of itself? The more I ponder, the more I’m lost. I’m a dog chasing its tail, a self with one foot nailed to the floor.
I try to wrap my mind around “non-sense” concepts like:
- Emptiness is form; form is emptiness
- Do by not doing
- You only lose what you cling to
- Being is non-being
- I am no one, yet here I am
My mental knot keeps getting more tangled. Can I attempt non-doing by putting effort into it? I focus intensely on not focusing. The Zen master tells me to relax, but I strain hard trying to understand.
Finally, the Zen master shouts: “Stop trying and just be!” The taste of oatmeal fills my mouth.
Insights vanish as I grasp for them. It appears that the essence of existence cannot be contained. Perhaps it’s better to sit silently than try and wrap words around the unwrappable.
The Tao Te Ching says: “The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.”
An Inquiry into Nothingness of Non-being
The paradoxical concept of “nothingness” has captured the imagination of philosophers, mystics, and spiritual seekers across history. Nothingness may seem abstract or unsettling for those new to the spiritual path – too much mind, too little openness.
The Paradox of Emptiness
At first, nothingness appears to denote sheer absence or a void. However, spiritual schools like the Diamond Approach posit nothingness as a unique presence – a state of “non-being” that exists alongside “being.” Rather than nihilistic oblivion, nothingness represents unlimited potentiality. It is the empty canvas onto which existence can unfold in countless forms.
Sartre noted: “Nothingness lies coiled at the heart of being like a worm.”
The Diamond Approach’s Nuanced View
The Diamond Approach offers a nuanced map of non-being and its connection to spiritual liberation. This contemporary path views nothingness not as a dead void but as a vivacious source from which life blooms. Nothingness gives rise to the dance of forms we experience as manifest reality. By realizing the emptiness within oneself, one can transcend ego and taste the mystical oneness of unity.
Nothingness as Source
In the Diamond Approach, nothingness is understood as the ultimate ground of being – a pure, undifferentiated awareness underlying existence. It has no limitations or defining boundaries. To awaken to nothingness is to dissolve into omnipotent stillness. The little “I” disappears into the vastness beyond all concepts.
If you seek nothingness, nothingness is part of your mind. Reality is not nothingness, but it is also not a thingness. It is prior to nothingness and thingness. – A. H. Almaas, Diamond Heart Book Four: Indestructible Innocence
The Flow of Non-Doing
Another illuminating concept is non-doing. Non-doing describes actions free from ego or effort. It is an effortless movement in harmony with existence. While not passive, non-doing lacks agenda or control. We become conduits for the universe’s perfect expression. Things happen through us, not because of us.
Interbeing of Being and Non-being
Contrary to nihilism, the Diamond Approach sees being and non-being as profoundly interdependent. Form rises from the formless – they are two sides of the same coin. This view of “being-nonbeing” honors both stillness and motion, both the Absolute and the relative. Emptiness and fullness propagate each other in an eternal dance.
Buddha taught: “In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their minds and then believe them to be true.”
Nothingness is not some obscure theory but a living gateway to the profundity of awakening and being. By exploring non-being, we can shed layers of delusion. We come home to the vastness of what we really are beneath the ripples.