'Nothing is ever what we think it is – it simply is what it is!'
by kuan Saturday, Oct 22 2011, 11:10am
international /
philosophy /
opinion/analysis
All good adages have many layers of meaning and lend themselves to multiple interpretations and the above is no exception.
The initial impression/interpretation in the vernacular is fairly straight forward – ‘whatever we think something to be, it is not!’ Simple enough, n'est-ce pas? But that interpretation begs the question, WHY? We’ll attempt an answer as the story unfolds -- and frankly I have no idea where it is going at this stage!
Never forget that every interpretation must exclude others if ‘meaning’ is to maintain its ‘integrity!’
We are faced with the loss of more profound meaning if we sub-scribe to a single, simple interpretation, so we shall not allow ourselves to adhere to any particular interpretation or cling to any simplistic meaning.
I have never been satisfied with surface appearances or superficial presentations, so let’s see if we can discover more layers of meaning in that very Buddhist adage, hint!
Everything falls victim to the irresistible forces of change so we’d better hurry and derive something of substance or our lives may be rendered futile and meaningless, and we wouldn’t want that, we’re American and we are exceptional!
“Nothing,” a perfect vacuum, an American cranium, implies empty space, though space is a relative term defined by time – all deep analysis leads to similar results so please excuse me if I appear to go off on tangents!
‘No-thing’ is precisely that, yet we are not referring to a void; 'no-thing-ness' refers to the absence of limiting factors/objects/things -- understand that a thought is also a ‘thing,’ it has a beginning and an end (measurable), whereas the absence of 'things,' no-thing-ness, reveals an immeasurable, limitless, continuous, infinite PROCESS!
But what’s the ‘point’ of ‘nothing-ness?’ The point is there is no 'point;' we are referring to a QUALITATIVE state that exists behind quantitative appearances, aha or aaahh, whatever the case may be, are we are beginning to see? I sincerely hope new meaning is beginning to emerge for all non-American readers that possess a functional brain.
“No-thing-ness” is SATURATED with QUALITY because it has no measurable quantities. Therefore, to discover limitlessness or ‘no-thing-ness’ is to launch into infinity, how very (qualitatively) sweet that/it is!
If we were to “think,” about it, continuity would immediately cease and we would be confronted with a thing/concept or measurable quantity of some type, like the oil reserves of Iraq and Libya!
Un-qualified Being or continuous pure existence IS the absence of defining qualifications/conceptions – have we got it yet?
It should now be clear; introducing thought into ‘no-thing-ness’ limits and veils by superimposition; the continuous becomes veiled or hidden by the dis-continuous. Therefore, thought or thinking acts to limit/distort/corrupt by superimposition whatever it attempts to 'capture', define or describe.
Now that we are all budding little Buddhas and immune from all the illusory presentations of culture we should have no trouble seeing clearly.