Wednesday, November 04, 2009

A Book About Nothing


“I love talking about nothing…. It is the only thing I know anything about.” —OSCAR WILDE

“Nothingness lies coiled in the heart of being–like a worm.” —JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

The concept of Nothingness has always interested me ever since I read Sartre's magnum opus "Being and Nothingness," which inevitably led me into a brooding, existential phase in my life. I can remember after reading Camus or Beckett, I would naturally contemplate the nature of non-being, of essence and negation until my head throbbed from the banging of an ontological hammer.

For something non-existent, this Nothingness, caused me dread. Dread of Being, dread of essence, dread of facticity. If you are in the same position, have no fear now. There is a new book entitled "You Don’t Have to be Buddhist to Know Nothing," a comprehensive catalog of quotations from a long list of thinkers, writers, artists, scholars and the ways they explored, confronted, and played with the presence of nothingness and emptiness in their lives.

According to the introduction, "Without Emptiness there would be no opportunity for something new, or something else, to occur. Where would Something happen? Stars disappearing. Novas appearing. Leaves falling. New leaves growing. One generation dying, another being born. Nothing is the still center of the wheel of life. Nothing is the core of creation. In the dark evanescence between equal and opposite, the Universe ignites."

Read more at the blog.

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