Hi
I am just looking for meaning of nothingness. Could somebody help me?
Take care
Ivana
“I am just looking for meaning of nothingness”
Then you are simply tripping over one’s own feet.
“Could somebody help me?”
No. As far as this matter is concerned, all are helpless.
Hi Amir
It is sad if all are helpless because this is one question which I have to answer to my exam. It could be a stage of meditation but I am not sure about it.
Take care
ivana
Striving lengthy gaps between your thoughts during meditation may allow space to witness reality.
[QUOTE=Ivana;58392]Hi
I am just looking for meaning of nothingness. Could somebody help me?
Take care
Ivana[/QUOTE]
What is the context of your question? In other words - I need more info. Please elaborate further.
I think I would leave that question blank.
Ivana,
Assuming that
- you are looking at ‘nothingness’ in the context of spirituality
- you know that words would fail miserably to express ‘nothingness’
- it is not ‘nothing’ but ‘nothing[U]ness[/U]’ implying a state
- you know that being a state it is more to be experienced
- you also know that it is the highest state so subtle that you may not be aware of being aware of it
- finally you know that it is a potent, infinite nothingness; not just a void.
then, the closest you can go is by meditating over number ‘zero’ that adds apparently no value, but the whole mathematical universe collapses without it. Nothingness appears to be so because it is beyond guna and beyond perception or description.
[QUOTE=The Scales;58434]What is the context of your question? In other words - I need more info. Please elaborate further.[/QUOTE]
It is question which I received for exam for teaching of meditation. “Could you describe nothingness?”
No more context, thanks for any thoughts.
Take care
Ivana
Dear Suhas Tambe
it seems that the question beyond description.
Take care
Ivana
Ivana,
“It is sad if all are helpless because this is one question which I have to answer to my exam”
Then perhaps it is important to first understand that whatever can be said about it is only going to be through the one-sided lenses of the intellect, which is bound to impose it’s own prejudices on what you are calling “nothingness”. Fundamentally, “nothingness” is not to be understood as a blank hollowness, or a mere void. It simply refers to that which is empty of all of our relative ideas and concepts, this is not a dimension which is to be included as part of one’s knowledge. That would be to impose a limitation upon it, and “nothingness” is simply empty of all limiting qualities, identities, and forms. Even to call it boundless is again, to impose another restriction. Boundless beyond boundlessness, it is something that can only be realized through silence. To try and make this phenomenon more clear to the mind - perhaps it may be more useful to include a hyphen in the word. “No-thingness” is that which is not a thing, and hence pervades all things. Not limited to any particular direction, it pervades all directions. Not limited to any particular form, it pervades all forms. If one can understand this, then perhaps it may awaken great insight into the statement of the organized religions who have said that “God” is omnipresent. What they are saying is that everything in existence arises out of one and the same original nature. While things may appear outwardly to manifest in different forms, coming to the ground of all being, everything is none other than one and the same fundamental energy, the same sound of one hand clapping.
So do not understand this “no-thingness” as being a mere void. In a sense, it is empty. In another sense, it is tremendous fullness. It all depends on which angle and perspective one desires to see the situation. Seen from a certain angle - it is empty in the same sense that a cup may be empty of water. Seen from another angle - it is full in the same sense that a cup may be full of space. But whether one calls it emptiness, or fullness, any description is certain to be dimensions apart from the reality itself. If one really seeks to come to know of the nothingness of your own being, then one will have to expand one’s awareness inwards and come to a direct perception of that which is the very source of one’s life. Even now, too much has been said about the matter, with the tongue has been drooling all over the place, and it is impossible not to remain as a thief.
[QUOTE=Ivana;58392]Hi
I am just looking for meaning of nothingness. Could somebody help me?
Take care Ivana[/QUOTE]NETI-NETI
Once our consciousness finds itself in the present moment, it will instantly discover that it is empty. Still, the emptied that our consciousness will see that present moment will not be a complete emptiness, but it will contain potential of all known shapes in the Universe. It might sound strange, but if we manage to get this far, our consciousness will constantly be aware of this fact.
We will see that in the emptiness in which our consciousness is present, a hidden reality is becoming visible for us. It might seem as if we are being pushed into the pure reality and we will experience will make it clear that reality has a characteristic of sliding from moment to moment.
When this moment comes, all of us have to do next is to attach our consciousness directly to that present moment and we will find that we are remaining in the pure reality all the time, by sliding from that moment to the next one. The feeling will be so vivid and so amazing that our whole being will float in the Inner Light. The best part is that our consciousness will not fly on the wings of the illusion created from the shadows of our past and our expectations for the future. We will be here and now, and that's the starting point for every advanced meditation. In this stage of deep meditation we will understand that there is no need for us to completely attach and waste our self on thousands of tiny, unimportant everyday problems, but we will decide that sometimes it is for the best to leave them solve themselves in their own natural way. If we believe in the laws of nature and that all things happen because of the Karma (what you do is what you get) we should be able to understand what my point is.I remember reading a book a long time ago by the philosopher Jean Paul Sartre called “Being and Nothingness”, which I believe was his seminal work. I don’t remember any of the details of what I read, but as I understand it, “nothingness” is simply the absence of being, of existence, of anything. The fundamental problem is that if nothingness is non-being and non-existence, then it cannot be experienced or known. We have no way of knowing if there is such a thing as nothingness because by definition, it does not exist.
Lesson: Beware of those who claim to know that which cannot be known.
That is a tough question, and an easy one. The easy path follows the old adage ‘nature abhors a vacuum’ and the universe seeks to fill any void or nothingness with something, anything. Science is full of smart people looking deep into the tiniest nooks and crannies for signs of nothing only to find more ‘stuff’. For them, there is no ‘nothing’.
The tougher question I cannot answer. Perhaps nothingness existed before the creation of this universe.
[QUOTE=Ivana;58441]It is question which I received for exam for teaching of meditation. “Could you describe nothingness?”
No more context, thanks for any thoughts.
Take care
Ivana[/QUOTE]
what did you answer?
[QUOTE=The Scales;58478]what did you answer?[/QUOTE]
Work is in progress. I hope I will manage it and I will let you know it.
Ivana
Ivana,
As far as perhaps writing an assignment, you may manage it. As to having any idea as to what one is writing about, you will not manage it.
Dear Ivana,
Please do not be too offended by Amir’s comment. Perhaps you are not aware that Amir considers himself to be an enlightened being, a buddha. Why would an enlightened being lash out unprovoked at an innocent person? The only thing I can figure is that maybe you have not treated him with the adulation that he expects. It doesn’t matter though. What matters is that you certainly did not deserve to be treated this way. I hope you don’t get a negative impression of Yoga Forums because of this. There are mostly decent people here. I’m sure you will come to grips with the issue in your own way and your own time.
[QUOTE=Asuri;58576]Dear Ivana,
Please do not be too offended by Amir’s comment. Perhaps you are not aware that Amir considers himself to be an enlightened being, a buddha. Why would an enlightened being lash out unprovoked at an innocent person? The only thing I can figure is that maybe you have not treated him with the adulation that he expects. It doesn’t matter though. What matters is that you certainly did not deserve to be treated this way. I hope you don’t get a negative impression of Yoga Forums because of this. There are mostly decent people here. I’m sure you will come to grips with the issue in your own way and your own time.[/QUOTE]
Thanks Asuri
It is nice to read your post. I do not have a negative impression. I understand it I am a buddha either 
Take care
Ivana
[QUOTE=Asuri;58469]I remember reading a book a long time ago by the philosopher Jean Paul Sartre called “Being and Nothingness”, which I believe was his seminal work. I don’t remember any of the details of what I read, but as I understand it, “nothingness” is simply the absence of being, of existence, of anything. The fundamental problem is that if nothingness is non-being and non-existence, then it cannot be experienced or known. We have no way of knowing if there is such a thing as nothingness because by definition, it does not exist.
Lesson: Beware of those who claim to know that which cannot be known.[/QUOTE]
Thanks Asuri,
I think a lot of people claim to know that which can not be known. But I think Jean Paul Sartre was not one from them. I saw his play No Exit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Exit in a theatre. It was …, I do not know the word to describe my voooooooooow.
Take care
Ivana