Nothingness is the Reason Everything Exists
A recent article in Popular Mechanics entitled “Nothingness is the Reason You’re Alive and Conscious, Quantum Physicists Say” is an eye-opener for the skeptical mind. The short article is worth reading if you want to get a better idea from a scientific perspective of what we are referring to when we speak about the silent field of unbounded pure Awareness, the universal flows of lively Intelligence within that boundless field of infinite Consciousness, and about the reality beyond.
According to quantum field theory, the universe is not fundamentally made of separate objects floating around in empty space. Instead, everything arises from underlying fields that exist everywhere. What appears to be empty space is actually alive with activity, potential, and energy. Even the vacuum itself is not truly empty.
Of course, physicists are attempting to find and verify what the source of the physical universe is by investigating the finer levels of the universe. It’s a beautiful pursuit, but it's like trying to find and verify a timeless source of creation by approaching it through time and space - like trying to get beyond the mind through the mind. But the problem is that the mind is in the way. It is the same obstacle in the pursuit of Enlightenment.
The ultimate goal is the same - to find the source. The physicist tries to find and verify it through scientific evidence; the spiritual seeker, through an experience. But both are looking for something through the mind where the truth cannot be found. The ultimate reality cannot be proven, and it is not an experience. It is beyond, and the source of the mind that is searching for it. It is that by virtue of which the mind can think and experience can happen. It is the unbounded field of pure Awareness itself that enables the mind/body to function and enables the senses to perceive their objects.
Without Awareness itself, which is your real Self, the pure sense of Being and existing, there would be no objects or phenomena and no world or universe for the scientist to investigate. Everything that has ever been experienced by anyone anywhere at any time has happened by virtue of conscious Awareness. Nothing has ever been experienced by anyone outside of awareness. The mind gets its awareness and intelligence from the field of pure Awareness, the universal one Self of all.
This is not a philosophical idea, concept, mood, belief, or attitude. It is the direct experience of those who have clearly awakened. From the perspective of the unawakened mind, the field of pure Awareness does not exist. There is nothing there, only perhaps an imaginary void or heaven or hell. From the perspective of the physicist, it is Nothingness, full of vacuum fluctuations, a field of infinite potentiality. But the reality of that Nothingness, which is the direct experience of the awakened, is that it is universal pure Consciousness, the true reality of your SELF and the underlying foundation of all existence.
We have been caught in the mind and intellect, and identified with the body, conditioned to the experience that I am the individual mind and body person I experience myself to be. Yet the true reality of that “I”, our real Self, is that it is the same unbounded universal field of pure Awareness that enables all minds to think, all senses to function, and all perceptions of the world and universe to exist. The reason all existence exists is that, to quote the title of the Popular Mechanics article, “Nothingness is the reason You’re Alive and Conscious.”
It is beautiful to see science moving away from the notion of a universe made of separate solid objects and toward a view of reality as an interconnected field from which everything emerges.
From our perspective, the most important discovery is not found through theories or equations or through seeking, but through direct experience. When the time is right for you, an unmistakable shift takes place in the innermost self from being falsely identified with being the individual person to directly being that unbounded universal field of pure Awareness that is fully awake and alive within itself. It is silent and still, but not empty. It is an infinite field of pure potentiality and the ultimate source of all existence.
It’s interesting that science has not yet realized the most obvious truth: without conscious awareness, nothing would exist for anyone. It is obvious that Consciousness is that Nothingness - the unified field of infinite potentiality. It is the innermost self within everyone that awakens to being the boundless field of pure Consciousness itself. It awakens to the reality that who and what You really are, and have always been, is Consciousness itself awakening to the universal divine reality of itself through the appearance of individuality. This is enlightenment.
Perhaps the most interesting question is not whether "Nothingness" gives rise to the universe, but whether what we call Nothingness is actually a fullness beyond anything the mind can imagine.
You can read the original Popular Mechanics article here (you may need a subscription):
