Nirvana: the Highest Void and Wellspring of Life

Hardly any concept is so misunderstood as nirvana. It is considered the extinction of everything that exists, but it is the opposite: the human being, whose old ego submerges into nirvana, will certainly find the wellspring of life there. He allows the original energy to be active in him.

 In many teachings of wisdom, the concept of an empty space appears. In Buddhism, one often speaks of, amongst other things, nirvana (literally: extinction of the notion of a separate existence). Also in Taoism, in the Egyptian wisdom and in the original Christian teachings, the importance of people on a spiritual path becoming empty is explained. What do becoming empty and an empty space mean in the context of walking a spiritual path?

 Jesus’ statement ‘My kingdom is not of this world’ provides a key for understanding this. Generally speaking, a human being is filled with the things of this world; his consciousness, thinking and feeling form a varied and unique potpourri. His observations, desires and fears, his considerations about all kinds of contingencies and the thousands of external things, which daily wash over him, often do not leave room for anything of this other kingdom to be experienced. This is why he is wholly one with the transient world. Then the other realm, the kingdom not of this world, does not exist for him. Now it is understandable that, if a person does not create room within himself and does not become empty with regard to the matters of this world, he will not experience the kingdom of God. The first step to becoming empty with regard to our dependence on transient nature is to step into the silence. In the Daodejing, it is said: Before heaven and earth existed, there was an indefinite being. How peaceful and calm. How incorporeal. It stands alone, by itself, and does not change. It pervades everything, and yet is not endangered. It may be called the Mother of everything beneath the heavens.

In the silence and the empty space of this nature, the primordial basis of the universe is experienced: unassailable and formless. The rose of the heart links every human being with the divine field of life, so that he is able to experience in silence that he is inseparably linked with this field of being, a field that goes back to the origin of all creation. If we are prepared to do so, we learn to trust what is formless, ‘the Mother of everything beneath the heavens’. This is trusting the primordial principle of everything that exists and that we are unable to fathom with the human consciousness. To us, people of a transient nature, the step into the empty space of a transient nature is not easy, because only a human being who combines intelligence with self-surrender, will succeed in experiencing nirvana, in which the perishable is extinguished and simultaneously the imperishable develops.

uneasiness  At the beginning of this path, we will notice that the voice of the silence would like to make itself heard in us from time to time, not only as sound, of course, but as elevation, anxiety, uneasiness, astonishment, or as a feeling of peace that overcomes any resistance. If we are honest with ourselves, we will ascertain that we are absolutely unable to respond to this turbulence or to make it part of our life. We actually have no power over it, and we get the feeling that we are certainly not worthy of it anyway. Yet, we increasingly learn to be open to the other ‘genesis’ developing in us. We are also bound to investigate all powers and insights approaching us on this path. Seeking (the atmosphere of) the silence is a great help in this context.

From the point of view of this nature, the empty space indeed seems to be a void. This might evoke anxiety. However, it we have the courage to enter this empty space, guided by our spiritual longing, we will experience that the empty space of this nature actually means a fullness, the absolute, from which everything that is relative receives meaning. Lao Zi says about this: The thirty spokes of a wheel unite around the hub, but only because of its empty space is it of use. The vase has been moulded from clay, but only because of its empty space is it of use. Doors and windows are made for the benefit of the house under construction, but only because of its empty space is it of use. Therefore: being, that which is material, has its merits, but true usefulness depends on not-being, on what is immaterial.

The eleventh verse explains in symbolic language that it is the empty space that makes things useful. The hub in the centre of the wheel, in which the axis revolves, enables movement. The whole of creation is kept in motion by the empty space in its centre. Through the empty space in the centre, the divine energies flow in. Creation and human being are only truly alive when they consciously bear this empty space within them. In this sense, the doors and windows of the room are the opposite of the openness of the formless origin. Form and formlessness have a purpose: when we bring them into harmony by walking the path, we experience the meaning and the usefulness of both. The laws of life of this world become our friends when we are open to the still formless other one. Rising, shining and fading lose their dominant power. The form aspect still controls things, but the human being, who concentrates on and surrenders to the space that is still empty to him, subjects himself to another law, the law of the original kingdom. The Buddha says: ‘Friends, the highest bliss is this nirvana.’ The apparent emptiness is the house of imperishable peace, love and wisdom. From the empty space that makes the ego fearful, the ‘highest emptiness’, perfection, develops.

In this way, we walk a path of becoming empty, the path to nirvana. The more room for the original energy we create in the silence, the less the matters of this world will affect us in a compelling way. We understand that our old being is affected by our lack of consciousness and that we are a plaything of the forces within perishable nature. We unmask them! They are a sham, and because the other, divine aspect simultaneously awakens in us, this will lead us to nirvana, to extinction.

misunderstood  Hardly any concept is so misunderstood as nirvana. It was considered the extinction of everything that exists, and it was believed that Buddhism was going up into the absolute nothingness. However, nirvana is only empty to the consciousness of the form-bound human being. On the contrary, the human being, whose old being submerges into nirvana, will find the wellspring of life there. To him, the form of all things is empty, if there is no longer a link with what is absolute, his origin. The illusion, ‘maya’, stops, when the human being, whose true being awakens, enters nirvana.

‘Extinguishing’ in the sense of the oriental teachings of wisdom may be compared to the endura of the Cathar brotherhood and of the current Rosicrucians. During this process, the form-bound being declines and the spirit-soul human being wakes up. It is the path on which we learn how the energies of the kingdom can work through us. This is the profound meaning of a verse from the Daodejing: I do not act and the people will change; I love rest and the people become honest. I do not do anything and the people become rich; I do not have desires and the people return to their original nature.

Activity  Perhaps we were somewhat amazed that we became silent and experienced the activity of our liberating, inner forces. It strikes us that we let go of things, which our ‘I’ would never have been able to do. During this process of letting go, an all-encompassing love simultaneously flows into the human being, like an energy that sustains everything. Yet, the source of this change remains forever invisible. From the empty space that frightens the ego, the ‘highest void’, perfection, develops.

The person in whom the ‘highest void’ is in this way activated again as primordial spiritual principle, does not withdraw from his environment. He works and acts, but is no longer ‘the person who is controlled by the form’. He allows the original energy to work in him and knows that he does not act as a nature-born human being. Only in this way, can the original power, which is the same for everyone, be active through the personality and awaken the memory of the eternal origin in other people. This is why the Daodejing says: ‘I do not act and the people will change.’ The eternal origin releases and liberates the possibility of change in others. ‘I love rest and the people become honest.’ What should a human being, into whom the rest of the link with the eternal origin has entered, pursue? By virtue of his true essence, he is one with all, and he stimulates this insight in other people. ‘I do not have desires and the people return to their original nature.’ Initially, the return to the original nature is incomprehensible to the human being of this nature. However, if he seeks the silence, he creates inner room that can be filled by the voice of the silence, the voice of eternity, resounding in the human heart and thus being able to transmit its energy. The human consciousness opens to what is unlimited. He knows that he is linked with the Light and the power of eternity, and he sees the return to this Light ever more clearly as his goal. He experiences something of the ‘highest void’, the primordial basis, from which all Light, power and being stem.

He who knows the ‘highest void’, is someone who ploughs the field of matter in order to liberate the spirit from it.

 The way produces life. Virtue educates, develops, cares, provides refuge, heals, nourishes and protects. Gives birth without possessing, acts without imposing demands, allows to grow without checking. This is the original virtue.

 © Lectorium Rosicrucianum 2009.

From Pentagram No 5, 2009