What is Emptiness?

Emptiness..what is emptiness?, my sister telephones. My mind spins with possibilities, all ways of describing the indescribable.

It's a great subject, dear to my mystic's heart. Just last week at the Meditation and Conversation group I am trying out, I focused on Aum, Om, the sound that comes out of Emptiness. And now comes this serendipitous opportunity to consider it a bit more.

Implicate Orders

The response in terms of physics might be Physicist David Bohm's theory of implicate orders. His idea is that all creation...sky, earth, people, animals, atoms, stars and oceans....come out of nothing. Each was an idea before becoming a reality on the physical plane. Bohm has implicate orders inside of implicate orders, like Russian dolls that nest one inside the next.

In the Beginning was the Word

St John, in the Bible, says “In the beginning was the word, and the word was made manifest and lived among us.” Where did the word come from? From nothingness, the void, emptiness. Vedanta says the sound of Om is actually God; Om is the sound that comes out of emptiness.

Silence is the Altar of God

Another expression, “Silence is the altar of God” from Paramahansa Yogananda, the great Indian yogi, suggests the same emptiness or nothingness. In this case, the Unformed, the Unmanifest, Emptiness is called Silence.

Tao Te Ching

Or consider the Chinese Tao Te Ching that begins, “The Tao that can be named is not the One.” Again, the Tao is the unseen emptiness from which all actions, all things flow.

What is emptiness? Not absence. Rather, overflowing potential.

Mystical Intuition

What does it look like, how does it taste, what is its smell? What is its meaning? Obviously, it's unseen, it cannot be smelled or tasted or felt, nor can it be heard. But perhaps it can be intuited. Meaning is not tangible and hence, has a life apart. We intuit the Source of All Things, using senses beyond the physical body.

Vastly more powerful than all the nuclear energy on the globe—immensely more expansive than all created things, emptiness speaks to the inner knowing of each mystic, ultimately lives in each of us.

Out of the darkness...out of emptiness, God said let there be Light.

Your Comments

I'm sure much more can be said about Emptiness and Silence....I'd like to hear your “take” on my sister's question, “What is emptiness?”

(c) 2010

WELCOME TO KNOWING WOMAN - INTRODUCTION

Hi. Thanks for clicking over to my blog.

My name is Jo Garceau. Two years ago, when I was seventy-six, I published a book, Knowing Woman, Nurturing the Feminine Soul. A number of readers requested that I expand on the ideas I wrote about, and especially to share my reflections on spirituality, heart health, shamanic astrology, growing older, and current issues.

Allow me to introduce myself: raised Roman Catholic in the 1930's, I married and had four children, three sons and a daughter. When I was thirty, I began to volunteer in politics. One thing led to another and after running political campaigns in Washington State, in 1969, I became assistant to the governor. After leaving government, I worked as a part time campus minister at The Evergreen State College while enrolled at a seminary offering an off campus degree. Later, armed with my new Master's in Human Values, I spent eight years in an ashram in California (more in the book, much more!) and have been meditating since the early 70's. Spirituality is the focus of my life.

My youngest son, Greg, and I share an apartment in Vancouver, Washington. Another son, Paul, lives in Portland and is single. My daughter, Suzanne, has lived at Ananda ashram in central California with her husband and four children for many years. Two of my grandsons are away from home, one at college and the other looking for work in Seattle. My fourth child, Warren, recently moved to Provo, Utah to continue drama studies.

I an a Shamanic Astrologer with a Gemini 10th house, which means I am eclectic about my work and like to stay involved. Before I retired as a customer service agent, I started a tiny business that does many things. Sometimes one area is "hot" and another cold and so I manage to make a little income one way or another... I read astrological charts in person and by phone, including for clients overseas. I book appointments for my teacher, Daniel Giamario (see shamanicastrology.com...I am listed there too), sell books over the internet, sell my own books directly, and work one day a week at a local metaphysics store, Celestial Awakenings....

In February 2009 I suddenly learned that I have what I prefer to call a "heart issue"....apparently not a heart attack, but arrhythmia and a serious blood clot. My first doctor coolly delivered his opinion: "You have a fifty percent chance of living one year." Perhaps the best description of my condition is congestive heart failure. By combining alternative and regular medications and disciplines I have recovered significantly in the past 21 months. I currently attend Qigong classes twice a week and swim at least once a week, and know I should do more. The medications have slowed me down and I limp a bit, and it is hard to walk as I used to. I wear a pedometer to measure my daily activity.

Over the past two years, I have offered discussion groups on Knowing Woman and on the astrological Turning of the Ages. A couple weeks ago, I began offering a free weekly meditation and conversation. So far, people seem pleased.

I want this blog to be interactive. Your comments, questions and suggestions are important to me. Please introduce yourself, and let me know what you are thinking about, what you would like to know and what you are doing. Together, we can build a community of wise women and men.