Parts Unknown The two matters you’re asking about are related. If there ever was an enigma, it would be the matter of what the mystics are attempting to describe as “nothingness.” Anything said about it is an unintended koan. And yet, it is the very mystery which every seeker is ultimately seeking. The query “how does something arise from nothing” can be an opening gambit. From the standpoint of ajata (“no creation”)—The most fundamental of teachings—there is no arising. Nothingness is meant to mean exactly what it is. Nothing. It is not, therefore, the opposite of somethingness. Somethingness is customarily a catchword for the “relative”: things, material or immaterial. Nothingness is a word often associated with the “absolute.” An actual meaning of absolute is “not relative”: not a thing; no thing; nothing. But, as used in the above sense, the Absolute is said to be an aspect of all that is relative; and all that is relative is said to be an aspect of the (“all-inclusive”) Absolute. In other words, the actual identity of both conditions is the same. So, if something (relative) is nothing (Absolute), while at the same time nothing is something, the two categories cancel each other out. We could say that “what remains” is the nothingness, as alluded to by the (bedrock) nondual teaching called ajata. In other words, it is truly beyond conception.
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