Meaning and Emptiness

Good Sunday morning to you... or whenever you happen to be reading this post.  I know those of you who subscribe via e-mail often receive it the next day.  The good news is that it's all good.  Which brings us to the topic that inspired this post... meaning and emptiness. 

A Course in Miracles tells us that there is nothing the world fears more than meaninglessness.  We fear emptiness so much that we make up stories and meanings to fill every perceived space.  The first few lessons in the ACIM Workbook begin to help us understand how this compulsion works.  "Nothing I see or think means anything.  I've given it all the meaning it has." But first, let's look at the supposed emptiness we fear.

In eastern spiritual traditions, from Buddhism to Taoism to Sufism and Hinduism, emptiness is equated with divinity.  In Hawaiian ho'oponono, zero is equated with the divine.  From a scientific standpoint, when I was in high school they taught that outer space was a vacuum, and that a vacuum tube was one where every bit of air was sucked out of it... so that of course meant that outer space was a void, with nothing alive in it.  Ha!  Now we know that there is a Field, often called Einstein's Field, of scalar energy that is the real content of every bit of space and everything else.  The thing is, scalar energy can't be measured because it doesn't do anything.  It's also called still point or standing wave energy.  It is the apparent source of everything, the Field out of which all that is arises, but it's a... well, it's a zero. 

You can also understand scalar energy from the concept of phase cancellation, an acoustical principle which simply says that two sound waves that are polar opposites cancel each other out when played simultaneously... in other words, both sounds are playing, but nothing is heard.  They are reportedly using this principle to address noise pollution in the Japanese subway system.  Scalar energy then is a more all-embracing understanding of this principle.  Everything in the supposedly 'material' world is energy, or appears to be... and so every energy has a frequency and can be measured.  And every measurable frequency has a polar opposite frequency.  When these two opposites are brought together, the result is zero, stillpoint, or what they call a standing wave.  My understanding of what is really happening is that when opposites are brought together, Reality is briefly glimpsed... the Reality of Spirit behind everything that seems to exist.

Why do we so fear the Truth that everything is really Spirit... not just spiritual, but literally Spirit?  Because we think that makes the material world we continually project meaningless, or evil, or wrong?  It doesn't... it just means we're making believe.  Or is it because, like little children, we don't want our playtime interrupted?  I've learned to notice carefully the perceptual temper tantrums I seem to experience.  They clue me in on what aspect of my own dream I'm using to hide from Reality.

A Course in Miracles tells it like it is:  "It is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what it seems to picture is not there.  This idea can be quite disturbing and may meet with active resistance in any number of forms.  Yet that does not preclude applying it.  No more than that is required for these or any other exercises.  Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 9, 2:1-5)  The debris is always and only our own stories, beliefs, and meanings.  There is nothing else 'darkening' our minds.

One of my grandsons, Tripp Michael, is now three years old.  It's nearly impossible to keep his room clean, because as soon as you put all his leggos, cars and trucks away, he compulsively empties them all out onto the floor again.  He wants them where he can see them, play with them or not, and manipulate them as he sees fit.  More likely than not, he simply ignores them then... but he wants them when he wants them.  I love this, because it's such a mirror for what I do, what we all do mentally, and why true forgiveness is so challenging for us. 

We empty our minds temporarily when we meditate, but we really are just compartmentalizing, like stuffing those leggos in a corner until we want them.  We may go through the motions of giving our perceptions to Holy Spirit to be corrected, but we really just hope for spiritual brownie points as we cling to our ideas about what seems to be going on.  We really are like small children with our own perceptions.  We cling to them as if they were who we are.   They are not.

I began this post by pointing out that it's all good.  I should clarify.  I use goodness not in the sense of a judgment, good or not good.  Good is a synonym for God.  It's all God.  It's all Spirit.  There is nothing else.  The world as we imagine it is actually nothing at all.  And this is what we fear most.

But fear not, for I bring you Good News, tidings of Great Joy (also a synonym for God).  Your imagined sins and your imagined brownie points are all forgiven you (they never happened)... and behind every perception, every meaning, every belief lies the immeasurable Reality, the all-embracing Love that lives us, forever.  Our Reality is safe in this supposed emptiness.  So don't try to fill the emptiness with new or different stories, or seek for meaning in them.  Rest in the Silent Expansiveness of your True Self.  And then let Self lead your life, and give a new meaning to all that seemed to be.

I'm closing this post with a quote from the biblical book of Revelation... not only because it is an often misunderstood quote, but because ACIM defines revelation as the actual experience of God, which is beyond words or meaning.  And so it is.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.  And He that sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said unto me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." -- The Bible; Revelation 21:4-5