It's an interesting fact that the concept of zero had to be
invented. In fact, it was invented around 500BC by the
Babylonians for largely mathematical purposes. Prior to that,
there was no such concept.
In fact, it's not too hard to realize why it took so long for
this concept to come to us. The concept of "nothing" or "zero" is
an abstraction; a mathematical concept that we need to juggle
numbers, but which does not really exist as such in Nature.
Does that seem absurd? Think about it for a moment. Everywhere we
look around us, we see a fullness of something. If a person
leaves a room, you don's see "nothing", but rather, you see a
room. It may have a lot of other things in it, but at that
precise moment, there is no person there. That is not "nothing"
or zero.
The vacuum of outer space is not zero either. It is filled with
particles and energy. Indeed, it is particles and anti-particles
are continually popping into existence and disappearing again
through the vacuum of space. There is no zero there.
Zero is a mathematical tool that we are so used to that we think
it is in Nature. However, for the most part, it is not. You can
readily see the numbers in Nature, e.g. two (arms), six (legs on
an insect), and so on. Where do you see zero, apart from in your
own mind?
We continually conceive of things in Nature emerging from zero or
going back to it. Science tells us that the universe came into
being from nothing. Many believe that after death, there is
extinction. However, if zero is really the abstraction we have
been discussing, then it might be better to think of it, not as
extinction and non-existence in a negative sense, but rather as
an invisible fullness, a field of latent possibilities from which
all things emerge.
Not only is this more representative of reality, it is also a lot
less unnerving. Throughout Nature, we see transformation from one
form to another. We see growth and decay. But we do not see a
move to "nothing". Perhaps you fear extinction when you die? Yet,
this "extinction" is no different to the mode of non-existence
you experienced before you were born. At that time, you were
awaiting manifestation out of the fullness of the zero from which
all things emerge. Upon death, you simply transform back into
that state.
Behind the universe moves the unnamable mystery of nothingness.
However, it is a nothing that is really a something that can only
be described in negative terms by human language. It is a
pregnant darkness of thought and intelligence, ready to
continually give birth to new forms and absorb old and wasted
ones in order to give them rebirth in new forms.
This zero is the mystery behind the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It
is the Brahman of the Hindus. It is the Nirvana of the Buddhists.
In modern scientific terms, it is the quantum flux underlying the
matter and energy that manifests in our visible universe.
Hence, Zero has a POSITIVE quality about it. It is not the
depressing void of extinction and emptiness that our habitual
mental association with mathematical conceptions has led us to
believe. Perhaps we can even say that the zero better resembles
infinity, i.e. infinite possibility, than it does nothing.
This has tremendous practical applications. One of the most
important is in facing Death. With this new understanding, it is
possible to understand that your life energy GOES somewhere on
death. It does not fade out to non-existence. If we think
otherwise, it is because we associate too much with the false
"permanence" of the body, and this physical life we have created
for ourselves, and not enough with the processes of change
transformation and rebirth that are the very fabric of the
universe.
You can meditate upon this. Contemplate zero, the infinite mother
of all manifested reality, and the home to which it all returns,
only to emerge once more in new and interesting forms. As you do
so, it will be a comfort to your life, and a source of spiritual
insight and depth for you .
Copyright Asoka Selvarajah 2004. All Rights Reserved.
Asoka Selvarajah is a writer on personal growth and
spirituality,
and the author of "The 7 Golden Secrets To Knowing Your
Higher
Self". His work helps people achieve their full
potential, deepen their
understanding of mystical truth,
and discover their soul's purpose. Learn more about his work
Recently, I felt impelled to buy myself a jigsaw puzzle. I
haven't done one since I was a small child, but when I saw them
in a shop one day, a curious desire stayed with me until I
eventually had to satisfy it.
Since there was no agenda to this exercise, such as completing
the puzzle as quickly as possible, I decided to do it without
looking much at the photo of the completed picture. Hence, I was
going, for the most part, without a map. Instead, I was
assembling the jigsaw one piece at a time. The only strategy I
allowed myself was to initially search for all the edge pieces
and assemble those first.
Apart from being a very calming meditative process (and highly
recommended for that reason alone), I began to notice how this
jigsaw puzzle was a very interesting metaphor.
Life is like a jigsaw, consisting of a very large number of
colored pieces, and coming in all shapes and sizes. In fact, it
begins with the very choice of which puzzle you're going to buy
at the shop. Many people believe that they were already given
their specific jigsaw at birth, i.e. that they have a preordained
"life purpose". This may be true in some cases (Mozart, for
example), but for most of us, we can choose which puzzle we are
going to do.
In other words, you can determine your own life plan/purpose and
then go about constructing it, piece by piece. If you don't like
the way the picture is turning out, you can alway get yourself
another puzzle and start on that one. You are not tied to any one
life jigsaw, and you do not need to be perpetually agonizing over
which jigsaw you were "meant" to be doing.
Assembling a jigsaw puzzle, and constantly looking at the photo
of the completed picture, is analogous to goal-setting, where you
set yourself a life goal, assemble all the disparate pieces
needed to achieve it, and then go about building them together,
while repeatedly keeping your eyes on the final visualized
picture, in order to ensure that you are on target and that you
are assembling and placing the pieces of your plan in the right
place and order. Hence, this jigsaw exercise is an excellent
mental training in persistence and patience within the context of
goal setting. It can actually help develop mental endurance that
you can use towards the task of achieving your goals.
Doing a jigsaw without looking at the plan is rather more like
real life as we usually experience it. There IS an overall design
and purpose, but there are MANY pieces - hundreds or even
thousands - and your task is to make sense of seeming chaos. It
often looks like chaos, and yet it is not. You may put some
pieces in the wrong places initially, until you later realize
that the overall pattern does not fit. Some areas, analogous to
your natural talents, come together easier than others. Other
areas elude you for ages, or you never seem to be able to find
the right pieces. You simply may not be looking to start on that
piece of the puzzle at all. This may be in the area of your job,
your relationships, your finances or whatever.
Yet, there ARE pieces that fit together in these areas too, and
it's for you to find and assemble them, each in its own place, to
create the overall pattern. As you do so, with perseverance and
patience, the overall picture of the life you are designing
slowly comes into view.
It's often best to assemble several small areas at the same time,
placing similarly colored pieces together in several heaps and
then assembling them, rather than trying to do one single area
all at once, in exclusion of all the other parts of the picture.
If you take the latter approach, you'll be forever trying to look
for the one piece here or there that will attach to the mass you
have already created. Moreover, you have no idea what that piece
will look like and how it will connect what you have done to the
overall plan. The entire process will become dependent upon you
attaching pieces, once by one to the periphery of the mass you
have already created.
The analogy is creating a balanced life versus overemphasis on
one specific area of it. For instance, what is the point of
massively over-developing your career if your relationships,
family and health suffer as a result? What's the point of being
an expert on everything that's happening in the latest TV soap
opera if your job and finances are going down the drain?
We need to be working on all the key areas of our life at the
some time to the best of our ability. You may not get it all
right all at once, just as you cannot assemble all the areas of a
jigsaw simultaneously. However, by taking the big picture
approach, you ensure that you are building consistently towards
the final picture. By contrast, if you achieve great success in
one area to the exclusion of all others, it can be very difficult
to later develop those weak areas, because your mind is so
polarized on your one area of success. You have no references of
success in other equally important areas.
One time, while my puzzle was lying incomplete, my cat leaped
onto it, displacing the whole thing and sending some of it
flying. It took me some time to restore it. This is also
symbolic. We may well have a legitimate balanced pattern for our
lives that we are working towards. However, the universe will
still test it to see if we are really serious! You need to know
that "stuff happens", even when you are on the right track. You
have to accept that as part of the story. Life is about meeting
obstacles and overcoming them, and then moving on to the next
challenge. You cannot play ostrich and bury your head in the
sand. If you do, your life puzzle will never complete. Instead,
over time, it will face ever more disruptions and eventually come
apart altogether.
As you may have inferred by now, I would highly recommend you buy
yourself a jigsaw puzzle (at least a thousand pieces) and go
through this exercise for yourself! You may learn a lot about
yourself and life too. It's an excellent meditative practice, as
long as you have no time objective on it, and take it one piece
at a time. Keeping focused and contemplative is the key to
success here, as it is in the larger puzzle of life.
Copyright 2004. Asoka Selvarajah. All Rights Reserved.
Asoka Selvarajah is a writer on personal growth and spirituality,
and the author of "The 7 Golden Secrets To Knowing Your Higher
Self". His work helps people achieve their full potential, deepen
their understanding of mystical truth, and discover their soul's
purpose. Learn more about his work at:
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