Thank God, “Nothing” Can Save You

It seems the entire world is plunging ever deeper into chaos. Lies and deception have become the norm, while egos collude for self-preservation. Many are suffering and, unfortunately, that will most likely increase as chaos becomes more complex and completely unintelligible.

With all our “advanced” knowledge, all our technological innovation, all our seemingly infinite libraries of ‘valuable’ information…

…suffering increases exponentially and wars continue without pause.

Yet, the ego-self always expects some degree of suffering each and every day. In fact, you have made yourself quite tolerant of suffering and even define your “happiness” as nothing more than a reduction of suffering. Because suffering is accepted as an absolute and indisputable “fact” of existence, you believe your only option is to effectively manage your suffering. This is because in your world suffering has a range of magnitude, from the least to the maximal.

The problem with this range is that, even though the ego has never experienced ‘death,’ it believes that death is the maximum level of suffering it could ever experience. Yet, ironically, the ego also considers death as an end to suffering. Such confusion means that there are times when the ego believes death is desirable and times when it must be avoided at all costs.

Obviously, dissolving death would collapse your range of suffering and this is why Christ, and many others, sought to prove that there is NO death. However, inherent in that belief is the negation of suffering since, how can that which cannot die… suffer. The ego relishes new fangled theories and ideas about death, or the “after-life,” but it will never give up its suffering. 

However, you would certainly suffer if you lost your job and your house and you believe that death would have nothing to do with that fact.

On the contrary, your belief in death is always why you suffer. Death is feared more than anything the egocentric mind can comprehend and all suffering is rated by your proximity to that eventual and immediate end of ‘self.’ However, since the ego always defines itself in direct association with parts of its experience of a ‘world,’ losing parts (job, house, etc) has a tendency to reflect loss of the whole. It cannot conceptualize anything as whole and this is why the ego cannot conceptualize death and therefore, must live in fear of it. Strip away valuable parts of an egocentric self and this would engender the fear of losing the whole. This is why the rich man often commits suicide after losing his fortune, because the ego equates parts of its existence with the whole of its existence.

If you continue to equate and ally your "self" with parts of your world, you will continue to suffer, since truth is whole and unavailable in part. You are not a part of creation, but the whole of it. It could not BE without you, nor you without it. However, an ego fixated on parts could never experience this (at least, never for very long and still remain egocentric and ‘in’ the world).

The ego-self could never accept the idea that there is no “world” because that would deny and negate the parts it has accepted in defining what IT IS. The world is nothing more than ‘props’ in support of the ego’s existing as ‘real.’ Remove the props and the ego-self must suffer. However, if there is NO ego-self then the props are not ‘there’ either and what you ‘know’ (since “knowledge” is nothing more than ‘knowing’ details about the props) is nothing. If everything you ‘know’ is a product of the world, then the world is also nothing.

However, to further your learning, the ‘nothing’ you insist on ‘knowing’ must be used effectively in order to know what is beyond nothing. Otherwise, you will continue to rely on what you know and, thus, learn nothing and this would result in continued reliance on your range of suffering, which obviously comes from what you know. When, in fact, all you suffer from is the strange belief that you do NOT know truth, but instead know alot about nothing.

If there is NO self, and the world was conjured up in support of the self’s existence, than the “world’ is equally nothing. Nevertheless, from nothing, everything is possible (but only when you come to believe it is truly nothing at all).

But, you exclaim: “That’s nonsense! How can I possibly believe that the world is nothing? So I should just forget about all the pain and injustice in the world and act as if it’s nothing?”

If you choose not to ‘forget,’ then you will apply meaning where none exists and the nothing that you give meaning to will consume your mind. Continued idolization and obedience to the parts of reality is based on past learning and, since nothing you have learned is ‘knowledge,’ suffering is all you know and is what you will continue to experience. The question is, when will you know the end of suffering?

Knowledge is power, but what you ‘know’ simply confirms and insures your suffering from meaning applied to a meaningless world. Paradoxically, your full and deep engagement with the world is equal to your dissociation from the parts that you have used to define your ‘self.’ The joy of truth has nothing to do with the parts that you believe make you “happy, ” since all they really seem to do is minimize your suffering, but never END IT.

There is meaning to be discovered, but you will not discover it based on what you know because what you know attests to nothing (contrary to the fact that you think you’re a pretty smart cookie). The “nonsense” is in your mind and this is superimposed upon experience to engage a senseless ‘world’ that has become very important to you. Nothing in your world makes sense and all your attempts to make it so merely delay truth and perpetuate your suffering.

However, you have had moments in which the meaningless of your 'world' was suddenly experienced with intensely vivid clarity. Yet, fear will always obstruct realizing this fact completely. Therefore, YOU rejected the experience completely and renewed your search for salvation in a meaningless ‘world’ that YOU make real. Truth is ALL OR NOTHING and there can be NO ‘range of truth.’ However, the suffering you experience, based on the fear you have learned, has a full range of magnitude, from least to most, and therefore cannot be true at all.

If you continue to consider your suffering from an egocentric viewpoint, you will become impatient with what can never be understood in such a way, because your “best thinking got you here.” Only a separate frame of reference could ask questions from fear and this means the answer will be unacceptable and, hence, rejected, because the answer would signify nothing at all. The ego seeks the knowledge that will lead to its salvation and will never accept nothing.

Merely recognize that what you ‘know’ is cause of your suffering and begin to detach and dissociate from all ‘knowledge.’ It’s NOT what you know that leads to “enlightenment, “awakening” or “salvation” because…

…only ‘nothing’ can save you.

Artwork by KD Matheson - "Liberation"