"Nothingness haunts Being," Sartre said. As we struggle with the mysteries and complexities of existence, we arrive inevitably at its opposite, nonexistence. We come and we go from Nothing, and in between we strain to understand what it is we came from and what it is we hurtle towards.
Trying to understand existence is neither simple nor easy, and it is something few if any have managed even after millennia of human intellectual development. Grappling with nonexistence is just as complicated and difficult. The concept of Nothing and nothingness is literally unthinkable, a maddening morass of paradox and contradiction reflecting back on itself endlessly, like two mirrors turned to face one another. Yet it is still something that we contemplate out of need. We fear death because we fear oblivion, the going back to the Nothing that we not-existed as before our birth. We believe in reincarnation or some sort of afterlife, and may perhaps be correct in those beliefs, but the thought of death being The End, that life is just a brief flare in eternal nothingness is what gnaws at us, what sends us desperate into the arms of gods or Heaven or the Universe to put it out of our minds and assure is there is only existence.
Not all of us are scared by Nothing. Simple curiosity attracts some to ponder it. Scientifically, mathematically, philosophically, spiritually, artistically, linguistically, Nothing is just a fascinating subject.
For years now I've been collecting all manner of quotes, articles, and books on Nothing in my own vain attempt to understand this vexing enigma, and I thought it might be of some worth to share my hoard, if only for diversion.
This week, I take you on a journey to Nowhere, towards Nothing.
3 comments:
scientifically speaking, nothing comes from nothing, we are not descendants of nothing we are descendants of stars, now of course one might ask where do stars come from or where does matter come from but neither of those answers is "nothing".
Now consciousness appears to come from nothing and go to nothing, like a candle flame in the dark, however if energy can neither be created nor destroyed and our consciousness is in fact an elaborate electrical construct caused my neurons firing in our brain and seeking to place patterns on sight and thought than perhaps even consciousness is not terminated at death either. However one must ask where would such a pattern migrate to after the death of it's host and cradle of thought? could such an elaborate construct flutter off? or is it nothing more than an expression of flesh?
Regardless of my take on life I too study Nothingness, the Void, the empty space, but my personal studies have in fact directed me towards the Abyss, which is the natural expression of sentient life's fear of the Void, the great fear shared by all living things, this is what I ruminate on these days
Nothing is definitely, as I said, our greatest fear. "Nothingness haunts Being."
my my my, someone has been drinking the existential koolaid, ;-p
Nothingness is not my greatest fear, immortality is my greatest fear, the true knowledge that there is 'nothing' would be a salve.
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