The non-reality of nothingness

[Jonathan Bricklin]

On December 5th, Greg Goode wrote:

>Quick question -- what are you referring to, Nisgardatta's *experiential*
>nothingness?  I'm under the impression that the ones who deify and reify
>nothingness are his followers (who might be more familiar w/Nisargadatta
>and perhaps Buddhism than with Hindu scripture and other teachers), but I
>didn't think that Nisargadatta himself says that nothingness is an
>experiential thing.

As I've written, nothingness is the one thing that doesn't exist, even as a
thought.  Nisgardatta probably didn't mean to suggest that it existed for
him as an experience, but the way his words have come down to us (been
translated?) can easily mislead--for example:

 >Your true home is in nothingness, in emptiness of all content.  (487)

and, apparently, have misled.

At the very least, the word "nothingness", short of being edited out of his
texts altogether, needs a footnote  as a hedge against reification.
Furthermore,  his use of the words "pure" and "beyond" as attributes of
consciousness/awareness makes it unclear whether he agrees with the
fundamental advaitin premise that consciousness is the one unsublatable
concept.

Metta,

Jonathan Bricklin
Brickmar at earthcom.net

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"Nor ever [it] was, nor will [it] be, since now [it] is all together,
one...."
Parmenides