Fractalic Awakening II

The Myth of Zero, or nothingness

The concept of zero as a fundamental aspect of conventional mathematics is so apparently self-evident that you are unlikely to find anyone who will question it. However, questioning it is exactly what I am going to do here. The reason is as fundamental as the concept itself; the question of whether or not "nothingness" can exist is crucial to the process of catiterating from consciousness towards Awareness and, furthermore, is reflected in the technological development of humanity itself.

To launch into the understanding of the true nature of zero, remember what I have shared about measurements and limits. Any measure has meaning only in a relative sense; that is, by comparing it to another limit or measure (i.e. a reference). Comparing any measurement to the True Reference, Infinity, makes all measurements infinitesimal, which means they are all extremely close to zero when compared to the Reference. Recognizing this gives you the key to understanding the true meaning of zero.

Given that Reality is defined as "all is One", and One is equal to Infinity, a genuine state of nothingness cannot exist in Reality. Reality is "everythingness", and there is "nowhere" you can go to in Reality where "everythingness" does not exist. But to make this even more interesting, we have no way of distinguishing "everythingness" from "nothingness" because we have no reference "outside" of Infinity to compare both of them to! Since Infinity is not one pole in a spectrum of which the opposite pole is "nothing", we are left without a reference for the reference, which is why Infinity is the Reference. What we do have is Awareness, which is Beingness, which is the nature of Infinity. From Awareness we iterate consciousness through limitation into dimensionality, which then leads inexorably to the perception that there is "us" (the lesser) and "the rest" of Infinity (the greater) as separate from us. This should seem very much to you like the dichotomy between humanity and the Divine. However, the limitations and appearance of separation are illusory, as are the differences between "greater" and "lesser".

The idea of "zero", or nothing, requires the existence of "something" in order for it to have meaning. The perception of nothingness requires someone to do the perceiving, which means that a perceived state of nothing is not absolute. The observer and that which is observed are not separate, so if "nothing" is observed and the conclusion is that "nothing" exists, the observer is attempting to exclude him/herself from the set referred to as "nothing". The situation seems similar to the question of whether a tree falling in the forest makes a noise if no one is there to hear it. The answer is obvious because since consciousness (or Awareness) to any degree, is a given, there will be perception, and that means that in the context of this writing, "nothing" cannot exist because a perceiver ("something") must be present in order for "nothing" to be perceived.

Zero is no different from all other measurements in that it derives meaning only by comparison with a reference. Therefore, zero exists in a relative way only, not in an absolute way. This makes it quite useful in mathematics. For example, with a given reference group, say, 11 apples, resting on a table as the designated reference area, you can arrive at a quantity of zero apples relative to the original reference group total by removing the 11 apples from the table. Note in this example that the idea of zero apples would be meaningless were there not an original group of apples to serve as a reference! But zero apples is not "nothingness", nor does it mean that apples do not exist at all; it is merely a symbolic way of describing the absence of apples within the reference area at that point in time. By contrast, Infinity is Absolute; not, "the only" absolute, but Absolute, period. Once anything has been verified to exist, the existence of nothing has been proven to be impossible.

More Articles

Back to Fractalic Awakening Home!

Copyright 2005 by LariAnn Garner
All Rights Reserved