On Nothing & Infinity

Sep 11, 2011

Remember: Where there is “is,” there is actually “appears”.

There are some who strive to realize the fabric of existence for whatever crazy reason. For those who do, let me throw at you a vantage point or two. Despite the limitation of language, I will go on anyway. But why even mention any of the forthcoming material? Answer: Why does anybody do anything? At one short period, I considered myself nearly cursed with the far-out places I have entered, but I’ve instead transmuted this all into a blessing. This subject is my lair. One I have come to accept. Anybody who wants to sip tea with me at the Gateless Gate Cafe is free to do so. You will just have to excuse the baseless teacups.

The Ouroboros is the serpent whom bites his own tail. This shows a prolific, powerful image of primordial nature, lying at the heart of all that we are and do. All appears to possess a type of feedback loop. This can be visualized by pondering over the notion of memory with its endless loopy associations of past, which are but endless copies fed into itself. One cannot say that the past or future exist identically as the present, unless one steps radically inward or outward to visualize a notion of transcending the notion of space/time, hence theoretically making all exist equally to each other.

For a century, Quantum Physics has attempted to dive into smaller and smaller bits of substance, attempting to find the most primordial substance of all, only to find itself biting its own tail like Ouroboros, after noticing the act of observation itself completely modifying the experiment. This appears to make the primordial more mysterious than it was in the first place. Where, then, can an individual even begin to ponder over what the primordial is? From what appears to be a limited understanding via using language to explain that which is beyond language, here I will list possible attributes of the primordial substance, and then I will attempt to explain them.

1. No-thing substance. As a black (w)hole. The no-thing is big in eastern and occultist wording, which is paradoxically a nothing and everything simultaneously. This is what I call a “greater duality” that has come together as a singularity. The “lesser dualities” are those that are quite rational in today’s world like a big for every small, whereas the “greater” ones lie within the territory of a something for every nothing.  Imagine if an omnipotent Creator was able to have enough ability to destroy himself. This idea would be in perpetual competition with the notion that the creator can withstand anything. One is forced to deduce that the creator can both destroy himself and keep himself from destroying himself. In Zen, this is reminiscent of their versions of yes/no answers being mu, or “not yes, not no”, or “un-do the question”.

2. Infinitely-refining substance. In a black (w)hole. Because Zen philosophy clashes with some Taoist philosophy, we can say as the Taoists do that there is an absolute primordial substance, but the catch is that this primordial substance is perpetually refining itself. Imagine if the same omnipotent Creator from above was able to have enough ability to delve straight into the primordial substance. This idea would be in perpetual competition with the notion that the creator can always go beyond the primordial substance. The idea of an actual existence of a primordial substance would be in perpetual movement like the permutations of pi. In other words, a cosmic programmer would realize he programmed the primordial substance, but then realize he had to have been programmed too. There would be a perpetual game of him as a programmer outprogramming another programmer, a game within ones own self–a game of a snake biting its own tail, where the tail and head are but the two “greater dualities”, and a singularity.

Interesting question to note: Where is the primordial substance in a fractal?

3. Absolute potential substance. Nothing more. At the delving into deeper and deeper worlds, one may realize the primordial substance may just be a relational type of thing, where there are only potentials, and that perhaps, coming to an understanding of this, one may realize that the primordial substance is a nearing of realizing potentials or an absolute free will (questionably Nietzsche’s Superman) whereas being further away from it would be an approach into determism. Hence, determism and indetermism may very well exist as another example of a “greater” duality.

If one ponders on the notion of thought as the driving force for action, one may begin to realize that perhaps infinite and nothing is not as mysterious as it has to be. Thought is like the conception of an action. Whatever can be thought may be said to have existence. If the observer has the recording ability to playback what was observed in the waking state but also to playback what was observed in the dream state, what makes the two any different? The reality may be in the thought form itself, not on its manifestations, for manifestations appear to be causalities of thought just as the map-maker makes the map instead of the map making the map-maker. Just because an individual does not recognize where a physical manifestation originates from, this does not make the manifestation a shell with no driving force. If it has to come to the point of causality through chaos, then chaos will be the mastermind, chaos appearing to be a cousin of potentiality.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” 

John 1:1

Esoterically, since “the word” was a translation from the Greek “logos”, and logos means thought/language itself, it can be deduced that the mystery of thought itself is something of primordial nature. What can be thought, can exist. The physicality is of secondary nature, for thought can be said to conceive the physical. But where does the Ouroboros fit into all of this? Believe me, the Ouroboros can fit into anything. We–Being/God/us/me/you/it plays this game of peek-a-boo on our very selves. The head of the serpent sees, but the tail does not. We play this seeing/not seeing game over and over and over.

It just is. Like nothing. Like infinity.