The ABCs: N is for (Radical) No-Thing

All Things are No-Things and No-Thing is Everything

May 19, 2024

In many spiritual traditions, there is a practice in which a selected scriptural passage becomes the theme for the week. At Radical Spirituality, we do the same thing, but in a radical way.

Each Sunday, I offer The ABC’s of Radical Spirituality, a single, simple word distilled from the common principles of all the world’s faith and wisdom teachings that serves as the exploration for the week. They are the roots of Radical Spirituality. And because I am that person, the words are in alphabetical order. We start with A and go to Z.

It’s a simple practice to get to the roots of what matters on our spiritual path. The best part is that you will get out of it what you put into it. If you just keep the word on a sticky-note on your computer, it will still work it’s magic. But to dig deeper, delve in, dive in, and see what you find.

N is for (Radical) No-Thing

In nothingness, there is everything, energy. The ending is a beginning. — J. Krishnamurti

Photo by Chaitanya Tatikonda on Unsplash

Fair warning: this might be a little bit of a mind-bender, but here goes…

It’s difficult to write about No-thing. After all, how do you put words to that-which-cannot-be-named? And yet, we must try —and thousands of pages have been dedicated to this impossible task— because it is the very basis of all spirituality.

No-Thing means that there is no object, no noun, no subject, no thing or form to name, and at its core, every tradition understands God/Source/Great Spirit/Ultimate Reality as No-Thing. Yes, we put names to (it) because otherwise, we cannot talk about (it). We anthropomorphize No-Thing with human qualities because we cannot tell stories about (it) without them. We represent No-Thing as an old man with a beard, a woman with multiple arms, or some other variation of being-ness because it’s impossible to conceive of No-Thing. Basically, it’s hard to relate to No-Thing without making it a Thing. So, we do. But these attempts fail to adequately describe something that isn’t a Thing.

All traditions actually understand No-Thing more as a process than a product; an interaction of actions, or to use Rabbi Rami Shapiro’s words, “The Happening that is Happening in all Happenings.” In Judaism, YHVH actually means “I AM,” a form of the verb “to be,” or the process of Existence itself. As R. Buckminster Fuller famously said, “God is a verb, not a noun.”

Buddhists see Buddha-Mind as being empty of form but manifesting as the co-arising of all things. Daoists understand the Dao as the process of all processes, a movement of constant change and becoming. Hindus use the term “Neti, Neti,” which means Not-This, Not-That or Neither-This, Neither-That to express the inexpressible nature of a non-dual, formless Absolute which generates and becomes form. And, a 2nd Century Christian writer, Iraneaus, wrote about God, the creator and sustainer (actions), saying, “His greatness lacks nothing, but contains all things.” Even Thomas Aquinas referred to the Godhead as ipsum esse, which translates to “being itself.”

At its deepest root, then, No-Thing asks us to move beyond concept, image and word to an understanding of the verb-ness of Divinity itself. If we understand Life to be an interconnected, interrelated web of processes (so say physicists and biologists), and we understand Reality to be the ongoing, ever-becoming expression of those processes, and we accept that No-Thing is at the root of all it, then we have no choice but to uncouple Divinity from Thing-ness. Simply put, we can only understand God as verb: God as God-ing, Life as Life-ing, and You as You-ing. No-Thing is do-ing. As every-Thing. All the time.

Sorry, but I told you this might twist your brain. Read on to the Deeper Roots if you want more mind-blowingness.

This week, we explore No-Thing: What changes if we see God as a verb? What if we see all Things (ourselves included) as verbs, not nouns?

Deeper Roots

On Mount Sinai, Moses first meets YHVH and experiences (it) as a fire that is constantly burning, but does not consume the bush. It’s a constant outflowing energy and energy is not a Thing, but a process of electrons (which aren’t really things, but processes) interacting with other electrons. When Moses asks what he should call this No-Thing, (it) gives him the unpronounceable word YHVH, which means “I AM” or “I will be what I will be:” a verb that describes the process of being and becoming, or the process of existence, itself.

When Moses demands to see YHVH’s face, YHVH says (basically), “No. You cannot see my face because I am not a Thing. However, you will see my actions of kindness, protection, and compassion. You will see my back (what I leave behind), but not my face.” In other words, you cannot see me because I cannot be seen. I am not an object but a movement, an energy, an action. I AM - to be - is a verb.

In Kabbalah, No-Thing is referred to as Ein Sof, or limitlessness. It is a force that manifests as light (Or). We do not actually see light - the waves and particles (which are other processes of interactions) - but we see what they do: they illuminate. Without light, we cannot exist, so that interactive process of photons and quarks and other things we cannot see (energies) is what makes all things possible. Energy (light) becomes/is matter, matter becomes/is energy (light).

In Daoism, the Dao is seen as “an empty vessel: it is used, but never filled. Unfathomable source of all things.” The Daode Jing Chapter 40 says it clearly:

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Returning is the motion of the Dao
Yielding is the way of the Dao
The ten thousand things arise from being
Being arises from not being.

The Dao is action: it returns and yields. How does being arise from not being? It’s a process. As it is said in the Daode Jing Chapter 42, “The Dao manifested the One. One manifests the Two, the Two manifest the Three, and the Three manifest the 10,000 things.” What is the Three? The interaction between Yin and Yang, which are not Things, but forces or energies. All things are simply the interplay between energies.

In Buddhism, all is emptiness or without form - No-Thing. Yet, like in Daoism, Things arise from No-Thing. Emptiness isn’t really empty. It is potential energy that generates, manifests or otherwise allows for beingness. And, it’s doing it all the time. Continual co-arising.

The Vedas and Upanishads also talk about the Absolute, or Brahman, as being neti, neti: not a thing, and not not a thing. It is beyond conception: an indescribable force or energy that is the creative (action) principle of the Cosmos. In Hindu cosmology, all Things (matter) arise from the agitation (movement) of the Supreme (an energy), which manifests the three gunas or modes (Sattva, Rajah, Tamah) which, in different states, interact with each other, causing all of creation. In other Hindu teachings, the No-Thing is seen as the action of a womb: not a Thing, but a process of creating.

And in Christianity, Jesus is constantly trying to explain that God is a process. In John 4:24, he says plainly, “God is Spirit.” Not a spirit (a Thing), but spirit itself. An energy. The Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, says, “God is nothing. It is not, however, as if he were without being. He is rather neither this thing nor that thing that we might express, He is a being above all being. He is a beingless being….God is nothingness, and yet God is something.”

Even physicists will agree: Matter is energy. In other words, matter is not a Thing, but a process of No-Thing. Quantum physicists will tell you that quanta aren’t things, but potentials that can be or not be, and potential - or the process of becoming and unbecoming - is the underlying force of the Universe.

All these traditions are saying the same thing: All is No-Thing. The root of beingness is not-beingness. The root of all Things is No-Thing. To be a Thing is really to be a process of No-Thing thing-ing. And No-Thing is thing-ing all the time.

Got that? Here’s the simple form: You, me, God, everything, we are all No-Thing. But we are No-Thing thing-ing in different forms. So, No-Thing is Every Thing.

Nothing exists EXCEPT as No-Thing - as existence itself.

Reflection Questions

What does No-Thing mean to me?
How do I experience No-Thing?
What prevents me from experiencing No-Thing?
How can I better experience No-Thing?

Suggested Practice

For this week, try seeing everyone and everything (including yourself) as a process, not a fixed Thing. Can you see the processes at work in all Things? Can you see the Divine Mystery as a process or a verb?

God is a verb, not a noun. — R. Buckminster Fuller