On nothingness

Silence and empty space as a source, and how meditation seems to make something from “nothing”.

Nothing and everything

Yesterday I was considering whether nothingness is a valid way to look at life. I mean the Asian philosophy of emptiness, nothingness, stillness.

In Buddhism, Zen, and I believe even in Daoism, there is this notion that the purest form of consciousness is detached from everything. It is essentially nothing and everything at the same time, in one particular moment.

Empty consciousness

The purest form of consciousness is empty consciousness, and my intention is to return to that state whenever I can.

Where there is no such thing as worry. No such thing as fear, no such thing as happiness, no such thing as being.

Stuck in between

The Western world is so gripped by the search for meaning and the search for purpose. In Asian cultures it seems to be the opposite way: there is a default understanding, at least in thought, that there is no purpose. And then purpose can be found.

I feel kind of stuck in between these two positions.

Who is the judge?

I think that’s because there is a question in my mind. Am I going to be judged, and who is the judge? Am I the judge? Is God the judge? Is society the judge?

There are all these questions, and there’s no answer to them. There’s just a what if. A fear of judgement, just for the sake of it.

There’s a counter-argument. If God is everything and everyone, then we are all one. And if God is all one, then I am the judge.

Void of judgement

Is there a problem in judging yourself? There is, when the judging doesn’t support what you’re trying to do. You judge yourself against an unrealistic desire, instead of what you should be doing and could be doing, if you had figured out what that thing was.

Probably the only way to figure it out is by really listening to yourself, void of judgement. So there seems to be a paradox here.

A centred mind

To make calm and grounded decisions I need a centred mind. Meditation is definitely one of the practices that made mine calm. Vipassana has taught me so much.

When I do meditate, especially after I haven’t for a while, I immediately feel the effects. There is this funny saying: you’re only as good a human as your last meditation session. It seems to be true, in a sense.

Something from “nothing”

Meditation does sometimes feel magical, because it seemingly creates energy and knowledge from “nothing”.

In reality, the “nothing” is you allowing yourself to shut off your monkey-mind for once, and feel the things you’re feeling.

Moments of attunement

We could call those moments of attunement. In them we get the chance to experience the universe in a more intimate way. When I say the universe, I mean everything around us, far and close.

This sounds very hippie, but there is definitely a truth to it.

Just stillness.

First recorded in July 2025.