Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization

THE CONTRARY ILLUSION OF EMPTINESS AND THE VOID

WHY is it that Buddhists, Robert Adams, and Nisargadatta all push the concept that phenomena are temporary and do not exist in and of themselves?  That the only “thing” that was permanent, was the space within which all experiences occurred, whether it was the external space containing all the objects and activities of the world, or the innerspace, the Void within which all emotions, images, thoughts, and energies occurred?

The above teachers always pointed to the fact that we are always changing, changing, changing, and concepts such as of a self, or that we are such and such, freeze in time and thus make real, processes that are endlessly changing, or appearing, or disappearing.

Their overall attempt to take our mind off of our own problems, our own fears, our own depression, our problems in the external world, and realize they are not so important because they are always changing.  What is bad now, will be good a day or two from now, and vice versa.  So they say, let us not pay too much attention to our problems, our emotions, our thoughts, our diseases, that the rent is due, that Trump is president, and instead recognize that in time all things will pass, or as Spinoza put it, we take the position of God, and regard all temporal happenings under the aspect of eternity, sub specia, Eternitas.

The concept of emptiness or the Void is a comforting concept.  It states the reality we are apparently confronted with is always changing so it is not really real, therefore we should not take it too seriously.  Instead, we should apprehend the void, see its quietness and peacefulness, and dwell there instead of in the excitement of ever-changing objects.

From my point of view, this is nothing more than a conceptual anesthetic, a device used to escape from psychological distress by apprehending emptiness within, and resting there, serenely watching whatever is happening around us, without the necessity of taking a stand or doing anything about it.  From my point of view, it is no different than an opium addiction, without the need for opium.  It allows you to be dead, before you die.

If on the contrary, you listen to me, you will follow a path of joy, of descending deeper into the body by just relaxing completely, and feeling inside your body for different dimensions of experience, such as of internal energies, of bliss, of heart openings, of openings within other chakras such as the third eye introducing you to the light of consciousness.  You will be following a path of inward pleasure which is in stark contrast of ignoring experience and instead concentrating on the unchanging and quiet Void.

To do this, you cannot hold on to the Buddhist and Advaita concept that you have no body, that there is no body, there is no world, and that you do not exist.

You certainly do exist, and in ways you probably are not aware of yet, but in dimensions far deeper than you are aware of now, you exist as a common thread connecting all of these dimensions.  Similarly, the Chakras also are common threads connecting the various levels of your subtle bodies, the bodies of emotional feeling, of feeling bliss, of feeling circulating energies, the mental body, and even deeper into the body of pure space where all energies are harmonized, balanced, and there is just utter clarity and peace.

These are positive teachings of what you could be, not negative teachings of saying no to everything as being unreal, the not-this, not-this, of the original Vedanta, or you say no to all experience as being non-truth until you cannot say no any longer and are in a silent void.  This is a negative way, and I feel one not easily traveled compared to my positive way of following your inner bliss and joy.

The Concept of Emptiness is introduced as pointing to the context of all objects and all experience, with the idea that only the context is real, not the objects or experience.

I say we need to throw this concept away too, and with a mind with no expectations or ideas, just greet whatever unfolds within our awareness with pure openness, pure vulnerability, that of a baby, and then experience what happens, without the background ideas of spiritual progress, inevitable death, heaven or hell, etc.