Is Nothingness Aware?

[ParanoidAndroid]

This questions relates to what Leo has said about nothingness in his video "The Enlightened Self - A Description Of Your Existential Nature" and "All of Religion Explained in One Video" also I think.

He talks about how nothingness is where reality comes from, how it is the fundamental reality and how that is what you are. Then he says that this nothingness is aware (and self-aware, if I remember rightly). I can't find any description of Nothingness or Emptiness being aware in Buddhism. His discription seems like a much more fanciful one. The Buddhist discription seems very plain in comparison to this all encompassing awareness in which reality exists.

So is nothingness aware? How can it be if it is nothingness?
 

Leo, if you could also respond to this that would be great! I commented about it on the video and you replied but I still don't understand this.

[Voytek]

Nothingness can be better described as formlessness. Reality is in essence a nothingness because it is an endless abstraction of transient forms descending from a common root of subatomic energy. Furthermore, nothingness is not aware in the sense of how we are aware during our daily lives or how a dog or cat is aware of their environment. Rather it's awareness is instantaneous and and integral in all matter. It's awareness is the way in which life progresses and balances harmoniously. I hope this helps.

[aurum]

It's one of those paradoxes in the Enlightenment game that's not really reconcilable via rationality. To say that Nothingness is self-aware would be to attribute some sort of quality to it, in this case awareness. So no, Nothingness is not self-aware. That implies a "thing" that's doing something.

At the same time, Enlightened people would tell you that Nothingness is self-aware. And I'm guessing that's because that's really just the best way you can understand it with your mind.

Anyway, it's not really that important. This is not about learning, it's about un-learning. These kind of questions will reconcile when the time comes.

[comp13]

@Atticus I think you're thinking that it takes a brain to be aware. It does not. It takes a brain to form thought, memories, emotions, etc., but awareness, is what YOU ARE, not a quality or ability of yourself. It is not a "thing" at all. It's not even nothingness. When you picture nothingness, you probably picture empty space. It's not even close to empty space. It has no qualities at all, other than IT IS. 

We take awareness for granted, when it is absolutely fundamental for our existence. It actually is existence.. Try to view awareness (being aware) with absolute importance, and deduce what it actually is from there.

 

Edited September 5, 2016 by comp13

[ParanoidAndroid]

4 hours ago, comp13 said:

@Atticus I think you're thinking that it takes a brain to be aware. It does not. It takes a brain to form thought, memories, emotions, etc., but awareness, is what YOU ARE, not a quality or ability of yourself. It is not a "thing" at all. It's not even nothingness. When you picture nothingness, you probably picture empty space. It's not even close to empty space. It has no qualities at all, other than IT IS. 

We take awareness for granted, when it is absolutely fundamental for our existence. It actually is existence.. Try to view awareness (being aware) with absolute importance, and deduce what it actually is from there.

 

I understand that it's not supposed to be something in the brain and that it transcends physicality and rationality. I've watched Leo's videos on it closely.

However, I'm not even sure that consciousness isn't produced by the brain. I'm open to the possibility, it would be much more interesting after all but I need to do more research (research includes meditation and so on as well as reading scientific books etc).

So if nothingness has no qualities at all how can it be aware? This is where I'm stuck. Surely awareness is a quality of SOME kind. I mean, if it wasn't a quality we wouldn't be talking about it. Or is the word nothingness misleading in this case. Surely it's not actually nothing as it does exist.

[comp13]

2 hours ago, Atticus said:

So if nothingness has no qualities at all how can it be aware? 

@Atticus If you reduced existence to its most fundamental form--where you couldn't break it down any further--it would be pure awareness. You don't need anything to be aware, any quality at all--no brain, no sensory perception, nothing.

When we think of the word awareness, the ego immediately says 'we're thinking about thought and/or sense perception.' It's not thought or sense perception.

Edited September 6, 2016 by comp13

[Tron]

On 9/3/2016 at 1:37 PM, aurum said:

It's one of those paradoxes in the Enlightenment game that's not really reconcilable via rationality. To say that Nothingness is self-aware would be to attribute some sort of quality to it, in this case awareness. So no, Nothingness is not self-aware. That implies a "thing" that's doing something.

At the same time, Enlightened people would tell you that Nothingness is self-aware. And I'm guessing that's because that's really just the best way you can understand it with your mind.

Anyway, it's not really that important. This is not about learning, it's about un-learning. These kind of questions will reconcile when the time comes.

Wow that gave me some great insight. Thank you for typing this!

[ParanoidAndroid]

13 hours ago, comp13 said:

@Atticus If you reduced existence to its most fundamental form--where you couldn't break it down any further--it would be pure awareness. You don't need anything to be aware, any quality at all--no brain, no sensory perception, nothing.

When we think of the word awareness, the ego immediately says 'we're thinking about thought and/or sense perception.' It's not thought or sense perception.

Thanks, I found your reply very helpful! I can now see how awareness might be the fundamental form of existence that doesn't need anything.

I suppose the problem is that it's not possible for science to explain this. It's something that can only be experienced. What if this experience or aware nothingness is an illusion created by the mind in a meditative experience? What if it's just the most basic part of the brain being experienced without all the thought and sense perception parts?

I don't know, I just have a lot of doubts. Sometimes I intuitively feel it to be true and I totally get it and don't even doubt it and other times I'm totally unconvinced and skeptical. 

[comp13]

@Atticus I know what you mean. Even after an awakening or enlightenment experience you'll find yourself falling back into skepticism. That's the power of the ego. 

But when you find it, I can only describe it as a truth, so true, that it rattles your bones.

Edited September 6, 2016 by comp13

[Christian]

The answers to your questions are not going to be revealed to you by Leo or someone else writing a comment on this post. Because every comment is an illusion and contains no truth what so ever.

 The only way for you to actually get the real answer to your questions revealed is to become enlightened - in other words realizing your true existential nature. This takes work though; there are lots of people talking about enlightenment and pursuing it, but very few individuals actually get there. I can certainly tell you that the people who manage to do have a drive for truth - not for selfish reasons, but for the sake of knowing what is true. This is shown in the way that they practice because they simply look at reality totally open minded without any beliefs, stories, assumptions at all and eventually arrive at truth and the answer to your questions and permanent enlightenment.

Like these people, look for truth and you will find the answer in direct conscious experience and know that it will be worth it, but at the same time extremely difficult. The path to spiritual awakening is very tough business because essentially, you are trying to "kill" yourself and the ego will resist. It  will do literally anything to survive. It will distract you from the real inquiry even in many sneaky ways. So be aware of that and work on this every day until you get to the truth itself.

 

 

[aurum]

8 hours ago, Tron said:

Wow that gave me some great insight. Thank you for typing this!

You're welcome

[Voytek]

Haha I've reread my answer and I realized that there was no point to write it. It's a fun thing to attempt to rationalize, but it is an ineffable thing to explain. You will not understand it by reading explanations, even from those who are truly awakened, and it's pointless to seek definitions to explain it because nothingness is a very abstract thing. It's like attempting to recreate the feeling one has in a new country they visited for another person. It simply won't work until they have been there and experienced it for themselves.

Edited September 7, 2016 by Voytek