Finding Nothing But Emptiness
As you must have noticed in my earlier blogs that I have been emphasising a lot on ‘emptiness’, more specifically I have been referring to a Buddhist school of thought that talked about emptiness, one that regards everything as empty.
Now, you must be wondering why I am bothering so much about this emptiness quotient. Well, to be honest, I gotta concede that this is a reason that is unknown still to myself too. And, I intend to gain some clarity through this blog. So, let me begin this piece, providing the anecdote of a friend that called me this week asking me if I’d be interested in going on a trip with him.
Quite unwillingly, I had to turn him down as I didn’t want to risk myself, my family and my surroundings by travelling now, and maybe we could postpone the trip for some other time. He did listen and agree to it intently, although with a heavy heart I could say. That was all that I could tell him, and that was the part that he could hear. What I couldn’t tell him was that these days everything seems to be empty from within.
Do I sound like a stoic? A great philosopher? In case you are thinking something similar, let me stop you right there, as it isn’t the case, and I myself have to deal with a lot of troubles understanding what is real and what is not, and honestly, there are times when I go bonkers (quite frequently) over this in a decisive mind.
But, one thing is for sure that material things could give you an unending pleasure, they can last for some time, only to leave you devastated after that. So, yeah, talking about the emptiness quotient. What I do majorly find absolutely redundant these days, whether it’s visiting places or people or trips, is that nothing is that extraordinarily great as it has been portrayed by people or in the movies.
In my adult life, I could count or state very few occasions where I could say that my conversations with someone were actually fruitful when someone actually bothered talking about things other than material possessions.
Now, don’t get me wrong here. If you do ask me personally, I’d say that I don’t have any problem per se, but somehow I feel that there is no essence left to anything anymore. Now, that might be a serious problem, people might label me crazy, but I am honest about what I felt and this is how I have been feeling lately.
Again, the literary scholars say that nothing could be so good or so bad to derive absolute pleasure from it at one go and experience severe pain if anything doesn’t work out your way. And, thus there wouldn’t be any more cribbing. I gotta confess here that the more I do read about detachment and impermanence, the more I get fascinated by it.
But here, there is one question that still strikes — Is that even feasible in this real life? If yes, then will I be so fortunate to get to live it?
