“Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.”

William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

I’ve received a bag of mixed comments about my most recent postings … ranting on and on about, well … “NOTHING.”

Some folks seemed to like what I had written … others, not so much.

I could write a clever vignette about my own life experience and coming to nothing, and it would be good reading. That though is not for this posting.

NOTE: I am in the process of collecting some vignettes which I’ll release in book form I’ve tentatively entitled “Apprentice of Wonder” later this year, I hope.

However, I do want to share some more of my ideas about nothing and address one specific comment:

“If nothing is what you offer than what is the point ??? That’s where the confusion is.”

I think the confusion is semantic … in the understanding of what I mean when I say “NOTHING.”

NOTHING as I use it is a beginning point …
an orientation … a way of seeing the world.

NOTHING is to be free of the limitation of bias, assumption, presumption, prejudice, personal history … all the stuff that filters what we perceive to be “real.”

As humans I don’t think it’s possible to be free of the things I mention about, e.g.: bias, assumption, presumption … BUT, I do think it’s possible to be aware of them!!!

When we are aware of our bias, assumption, presumption, prejudice … and so on, we are at the beginning of freeing ourselves of the limitation they impose upon us.

NOTHING is the ability to stand in a position beyond the limitations of our personal history, with all the baggage that brings along.

NOTHING is the position of choice … the place where we become free to choose.

Choosing Well

Most folks never get to choice, because they are stuck in the limitations of their personal history. The world most people inhabit is the one they’ve already experienced and have projected before them.

In the movie he conceptualized, “After Earth,” Will Smith, playing Ranger General Cypher Raige, explains the idea of projection to his son Kitai (played in the film by his son Jaden Smith).

The movie script uses the singular emotive response of “fear” to illustrate the power of projection:

Cypher Raige: “Son this is not training. This is a class one quarantined planet, the threats we will be facing are real. Everything on this planet is evolved to kill humans. Every single decision we make will be life or death. But if we are going to survive this, you must realize that fear is not real, it is a product of thoughts you create. Now do not misunderstand me, danger is very real, but fear is a choice.“ – After Earth

There is a subtle undercurrent in the movie about transcendence IMO (maybe some projection on my part).

Cypher Raige is a man without fear. He conquered his fear years before and became a hero as a result. This is half the battle of the Buddha in the attainment of enlightenment of course, i.e.: conquering fear.

Later in the movie we learn the story of how and when Cyhper conquered his fear. Simply told he believed he was about to die, and in that moment gave up being afraid. The moment of his perceived death released him entirely … in the moment there was NOTHING left for him, only a choice to be made and the action that followed.

When there is NOTHING we are free to act … there is no resistance, no friction in the system … only clarity and movement. I would call this the the moment of choice the instant in which we are free to act beyond the limitations of our personal history.

The power in the moment of choice in altering the course of one’s life is enormous. In that moment, and only in that moment are we free to express ourselves completely without remorse or regard for consequence beyond meeting the moment as it is …

In the “moment of choice” we experience ourselves as we are, beyond the imposition of our past or the concern for our future … we are free to act potently and powerfully in a life affirming way … we regain our humanity.

If that is not enough to make NOTHING worth pursuing than I am at a loss to offer you more value in what I am attempting to present.

Beyond Choice … Poo-Pooing the “Non-Dual”

There is another consideration attached to the concept of NOTHING as I approach and employ it.

If you are of the spiritual ilk of non-dualism you are probably aware of the offer held out that suggests there is a position beyond self-identifying, an all encomposing awareness beyond the egoic position of being.

NOTHING as I am referring to it sees non-dualism as just another booby prize … the treat or candy held out as a reward to the infantile mind that seeks transcendence or enlightenment as they understand it from a non-transcendent or unenlightened position.

Non-duality is the grand awareness of pure being, consciousness.

Non-dualism, or non-duality, as it is often presented and discussed in mostly Western spiritualism is offered as a position without subject or object, or beyond subject of object.

In the Advaita tradition only Brahman is real, the empirical, manifest world is nothing, or non-existant, i.e.: only a projection of consciousness, unreal. This path is common to the spiritual traditions influenced by Hinduism and Vedantic philosophy.

In the Advaya tradition there is no difference of distinction between the absolute and the relative, all things are the same essentially … simply understood at different levels of awareness. This is consideration is present in Buddhism, as well as in the Vedantic paths.

There is a misconception in the non-dual traditions (according to me) about something to be attained, i.e.: non-dual consciousness, the experience of pure being, or pure consciousness without subject or object.

The Advaita and Advaya traditions suggest that in the moment of transcendence or enlightenment the egoic identification of “self” or “I” is lost completely, i.e.: there is no longer anyone there/here … only primordial beingness or consciousness.

In the model I am holding out the only thing to be gained is truly NOTHING … simply the experience of being as you are incarnate in this manifest form we occupy…

and … if you continue beyond NOTHING, to occupy the incarnate form and the access to wonder and awe it offers fully and completely for as long as you are able.

The “trick” to gaining NOTHING however is first letting go of everything else.

This is kind of submission, but a submission only to the moment and yourself. To become completely aware of this moment, and only this moment as the starting point. Then to act …

In acting all things become present, eternity and infinity are complete, and what is real are the clarity and movement of the moment … life is held in that dynamic sphere of acting and there is nothing else.

If I’ve learned one thing, or maybe more accurately stated, come to believe one thing, in my many years of living now is that, life is dynamic, i.e. it will not stand still or wait. Life demands that we show up for it fully and completely, or it will pass us by.

Most people remain ever waiting, thinking that “waiting” is a passive act. A warrior understands that “waiting” is active and does so only when there is no action that is needed. Yet, when the waiting is full a warrior acts without hesitation blending fully in the warp and weft of the moment in a whirling blur.

Like the Dervish, the warrior acts, becoming one with the One, while devotionally remembering themselves in the “I” that is all.

REMEMBER, there is literally NOTHING to do …

just be … what you have is already “IT.”

NOTHING to it, really.

Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Princeton, N.J.

P.S. – This is the basis of my Foolish Wisdom dialogues in the workshops I run. If you want to experience a live event or program with me you can either in person or via our Live Internet Simulcasts, now broadcast in HD on our private MythoSelf LiveStream channel (http://www.livestream.com/private/mythoself).