The Land of Not and Nothing

This land of Not/Nothing is best viewed from notness
Obviously not and nothing are not the same. To gain access to nothing, be present to notness.

Ok, what the hell am I talking about?

Is this some sort of idealistic gibberish? Am I an over-the-hill elder waxing on about stupid ideas? It could be. Sometimes even I wonder. I certainly don't think of this as the truth. So I write in the frame of mind of "let's see.".

Let's wonder about a bit.

In our language we tend to think of things as absolutes and opposites. If something is not green, it's red. If it's not light it's dark. If it's not left it's right. We have words that we assign as labels to state what something is - to give it a position we can understand. We are programmed - I know the thought of being programmed is repugnant to most people - we are programmed to think in the labels provided by our languages. However in a land of labels notness doesn't compute. We are novices in thinking in terms of what's not.

I don't mean no one can think notness. Many have, many do. Scholars, poets, physicists, religious leaders, philosophers, and yes, just ordinary people, get notness. Notness has been in human language, writings, and teachings for thousands of years. Of course I'm not just talking about western cultures. And for the most part we dismiss it as oddness.

What do I mean by notness? When something is, there is a corresponding state is not. So red is both red and not red. Therefore if something is not red, it doesn't need to be green, or blue, or yellow. It can just be the state of not red. I don't mean there's a real thing called not red. I mean there's a way of thinking not red - a way of relating to a state of being not red.

The simplest way of saying it is if something is not red it's just not red. Period. We don't have to go on and make it something else, some other color, another label. We can just relate to it as not red. Of course using color here is only as an example.

If I said to you someone was not friendly, where does your mind go? What label do you immediately/automatically assume applies, or do you think I mean to have applied, to that person? For most people, stopping at not friendly short circuits their life long programming. Most think what I meant was to say that person was nasty, or grumpy, or unfriendly, or any one of any number of other labels. And they go on to interact with me as though I said whatever they thought I meant from their historical programmed labeling routines. However, I didn't say any of their characteristics applied to that person of reference. I simply said not friendly. What happens if we just stop at not friendly? Where does that leave us? Well if you can short circuit your automatic need to add another label and just be present to standing in not friendly, you have access to notness. Sort of a strange place to stand, yes?

If you doubt what I'm saying pay attention to what you think when I say I am not Christian. I won't attempt to assume what you do with that, and I suspect it's not complimentary. If you live where I live here in the bible belt, it's an immediate red flag. It has all kinds of immediate alternative labels, meanings and consequences. It could mean I am not to be trusted, respected, or included. It means I am to be excluded, maybe shunned, or at least avoided. A few might wonder, since I openly refer to some of my Jewish friends, "Is he a closet Jew?" Lately they might go so far as to wonder if I'm a Muslim. Atheist? Maybe Humanist? Or how about Buddhist? Something! Nope. Just not Christian.

And not Christian doesn't mean all the other baggage that immediately gets added. It doesn't mean I'm not a good person or don't have ideals. It doesn't mean I think Christians are my enemy, or any of a host of other things that get lumped into Christian narratives. It does mean I do not believe in Christian religious doctrine. And I don't believe in God.

God occurs for me as a man made invention, authored in an age of superstition, as a means of assigning responsibility for our plights in life to someone or something "out there". It leaves us off the hook. Witness our denial of global warming and the consequences of it.

I don't go to these lengths in such an emotion laden arena not because of my spiritual preferences. Instead I want to trigger our automatic need to label - our brain's programming for naming, labeling, and categorizing. Our brains scream - we are driven to think and act in the domain of isness - for some way to grasp a reality, and any kind of reality, just so it has a label.

We have to have something be an is. So we have little or no facility to listen for what is not. Being present to what is not requires no more than being. It's a quiet state. It requires no thought, no processing, no conclusions, no alternative labeling. Notness is a peaceful state.