Growing up, I always thought the most fascinating and difficult concept to imagine was the idea of nothing. That's right - nothing.
How could there be nothing? I would always wonder. Occasionally, when my mind had the strength, it would get glimpses of nothing, but even that was perhaps an illusion.
What would be there, if nothing was there? Darkness? No, because darkness is something. The vacuum of space? No, because that's something too.
How the heck could there be nothing? It was such a mind-bending question that I always loved to ask myself and my friends.
But now, I realize it's true that there can't be nothing, but not because darkness, or space, or emptiness is something. But rather, in order for there to be nothing, there must be one thing, and that is the knower of nothing. The experiencer of nothing.
If nothing is truly there, then how do you know? There must be a knower. Otherwise, we can't talk about nothing. If we're to imagine a nothing without a seer of nothing, then there's nothing to even talk about.
When I think of nothing - no planets, no stars, no galaxies, no light, no energy, no space - it's hard to create an image of what remains. I always struggled, because I would always see darkness, which is still something.
Now, when I imagine nothing, I see myself. I see the seeing. Now, with focus upon myself, the seer, everything else falls away. In a sense, it's just me, and nothing else.
Perhaps that is the question I had always asked myself growing up, without even realizing it. Perhaps I was always looking out, trying to see what it's like to see "nothing," when I could've just directed my gaze inward, at itself.
Now, with a newfound perspective on the self, "nothing" emerges around me.
Perhaps this is nothing.
As long as you're there to experience something, there cannot be nothing. But if you're experiencing yourself, what else matters? Perhaps nothing.
Live with substance!
Gabe Orlowitz
