Musings On Nothing


by Ken Fields - Date: 2007-01-22 - Word Count: 443 Share This!

"Nothing is perfect" so the saying goes. So, for all of us who want perfection, nothing is what we seek. "Nothing is sacred" is another common phrase. So, those of us who seek the sacred, nothing, again, is our goal. But, how does one obtain nothing? The answer, as simple as it sounds, is not easy. The simple answer is doing nothing. However, doing nothing can be more than boring. It can be frustrating, nerve wracking, depressing and maddening. Even when we are relaxing, resting in a hammock between two palm trees, we are not doing nothing. We are thinking, or dreaming. We are worrying, or planning. We are wondering, fantasizing or remembering. The mind is active. In fact, it is sometimes said that a peaceful mind is an oxymoron. There is no such animal. The mind by nature is not peaceful. It is active, it is often conflicted, it is either in the past or in the future remembering or planning. The present moment is not of the mind, it is of the senses. And that is not nothing, which is something.

Nothing is elusive. And that does not mean that anything is not elusive. It means that nothing cannot be comprehended. It cannot be grasped by the mind or the senses. It cannot be conceptualized nor captured in words. It is beyond every conceivable notion of anything. You cannot become nothing; you cannot achieve nothing for even becoming a homeless bum is something. Nothing is way beyond minimalism or simplicity. It is not asceticism or being a recluse in the mountains. It is not even spirit or soul as we often think of those as something. Nothing is not even an abstraction. Nothing is simply that which has no existence whatsoever.

Yet, nothing is perfect. And nothing is sacred. And don't forget that nothing is forever. Do nothing; be nothing--absolutely nothing, and you will be perfect, you will be sacred, and you will be forever. You may as well cease to exist.

The irony in all this is that modern physics proposes that we don't exist - as individuals. Every single object that appears as an individual form is an illusion. Like the spinning propeller blade that appears solid, existence only appears to have form. Existence is really formless. It is essentially nothing. The fundamental teaching of Buddhism is the same, stating that all material forms and all conscious states are completely empty of any inherent self existence. This being the case, there is nothing to do to be nothing as we already are that.

The upshot of all this is simple: relax, you need do nothing to be perfect, sacred and forever. You already are.


Related Tags: thinking, soul, doing, peaceful, spirit, perfect, sacred, simplicity, existence, dreaming, nothing

Kenneth Fields is owner and principle counselor at Open Mind Counseling, http://www.openmindcounseling.com He is a nationally certified licensed mental health counselor with over 25 years of experience in working with individuals, couples, families and groups. He has been a crisis intervention counselor, has taught at university and has been an administrator in a human service agency. He has taught public classes in stress and anger management, mediation, communication and negotiation, self image psychology, motivation and goal setting and crisis prevention. Mr. Fields now offers online counseling and specializes in cognitive behavior and family systems therapy.

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