THE PATH OF VACUITY

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A strange title for this post, however, comes from the research I am carrying out to develop the essay that will be called “Dintornism in Literary Creation”. I have already commented on the concept of Dintornism which I defined in my book “Dintornism. A plastic-philosophical theory of reality”, in posts DRAWING, TO KNOW BETTER OURSELVES, DRAWING AND THRESHOLDISM, TO KNOW OUR INNER SELF, and DRAWING AS SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE.

Although it is a title that sounds philosophical and in a way it is, its overall conception also contains very concrete and practical aspects about walking and other topics, which as the blog and reflection have developed, I have been able to correlate with the WALK-RWD SYSTEM, such as Abstraction, Meditation, Concentration, Relaxation both physical and mental, Ecstasy, Contemplation, the Unconscious, Synchronicity, Archetypes that are intimately related to the theme of emptiness (in Sanskrit: Sunyata), which are an important part of the Indian philosophical-religious mentality.

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In this case it is a matter of identifying and valuing the concept of Emptiness with the WALK-RWD System of walking, reading, writing and drawing. And that it has a close relationship with our external senses, as I will explain later.

Emptiness as an Indian (Hindu) concept, is a path that we can use for a better awareness (application and use: utilization) of the WALK-RWD system.

Let us first try to understand this term from the conceptual point of view of Indian philosophy, in its origins.

The Upanishads texts -from the most remote centuries, 8th century b.C.- The Indian philosopher and monk Nagarjuna (2nd century A.D.) took up the concept of Emptiness and began to use it in a more profound way, affirming that the human being could awaken in such a way that he would be able to observe and understand the reality that surrounds us.

I must point out that the qualifier of empty, vacuous or vacuity does not represent trivial, futile or obtuse aspects, but it means one of the greatest conceptions that Hindu philosophy (Brahmnism, Buddhism and Jainism) has ever conceived and established. We are obviously not referring to that kind of emptiness that we experience and feel when, for example, we watch television, without seeing it, or when we listen to the radio, without hearing it; that we do not separate ourselves from those electronic devices – because we do not want to and cannot – for 1, 2 or more hours and without being attracted or interested in seeing and listening.

On the contrary, that power of observation – seeing, thinking and imagining – through the lens of the Sunyata (Emptiness), about all the things that surround us in an empty way, allowed the person an absolute awakening.

Master Nagarjuna suggested that in order to achieve this power of liberation and awakening it was indispensable to live a special way of life; to move and remain in a differentiated existence (in Sanskrit: Samsara) to the traditional one, and appropriate to the new way of observing the world (external and internal reality).

The Sunyata works by creating and allowing the observation of new worlds (external reality and internal reality) by allowing the unveiled enquiry (seeing, thinking and imagining) through meditation, creating different forms of thought, which will be empty elements to reach the absolute awakening.

To achieve this awakening, a path must be followed, the path of the Sunyata or Emptiness, an empty path, a path of detachment and munificence (generosity and altruism). It is a path that must be travelled and in which there are no exaggerated extremes, but which is sown with moderate demands and actions.

This moderation is the qualification that must be arranged so that actions under the guidelines of the Mahayana or Nagarjuna school of emptiness are at the midpoint of human behavior, centered within the extreme limits of the human condition.

Extreme actions are cancelled as a functional demand of the Sunyata, however, if for some reason the “sunyatins” (adepts) had – or have – to relate to exaggerated actions or ideas they can always cancel or avoid them by rejecting them. Nagarjuna’s School flourished precisely because it responded to this moderation in demands and condemned the obligatory nature of behavior in exaggerated extremes; hence it included the way of the Middle Path, or the Middle Centre or the Middle Way (Madhyamaka) in its philosophy.

The world is empty. Things are empty. Concepts, like words, are heard empty. These are the fundamental philosophical propositions of the Mahayana or school of Emptiness. What we present in this post is one more of the dozens of interpretations that have been sought on the stipulations and foundations of Nagarjuna’s school of thought of Emptiness, the Mahayana.

For our western conception to imagine that our existence is a void and that it is surrounded by empty things is quite confusing, however, we should not understand it as an absolute and unlimited vacuity; we would better understand it as a Metaphysical Emptiness.

For Nagarjuna this philosophy was a creative process that she used to achieve the Awakening.

This objective could be equated to a philosophical rebirth that involves the mental, the emotional and the spiritual.

In order to achieve this, it is essential to walk on an empty path, the path of emptiness. This goal is achieved through imagination and fantasy, and upon reaching this empty place, the awakening begins, which in turn, impacts our own imagination and fantasy because of how disturbing the concept of Emptiness is for us.

How and what is this path to Awakening?

How can we take the right path to Awakening and not make mistakes?

Emptiness (Sunyata) is the characteristic nature (proper and real) of all things, of all beings, of all existence. There is nothing that is not empty.

Nagarjuna’s instruction and teaching was a path that had to be travelled by rejecting extremes; that path had to be followed through the middle points, without touching the extreme limits of the human condition.

That walk along the middle way must be done with defined and precise (concrete) actions of the being, conditioned or not, voluntary or involuntary, generated by necessity, by desire or by instinct.

In order to be able to lead ourselves along this middle way, we must use meditation, leaning creatively on imagination and fantasy, avoiding falling into extremes (passions, hatred, greed, etc.) with the purpose of seeking to make Karma lose its capacity to reproduce itself, and thus be able to reach liberation from all suffering and from reincarnation, by achieving Nirvana.

Now, all those sensitive (the 5 senses) and thinking forms are empty, and it is precisely the realization and recognition of that Emptiness – awakening – that makes us walk through that empty reality – an apparent reality – and that only in this way can we remain in the sphere of Awakening.

In the WALK-RWD system, the precise, specific and delimited path that we define with our walk, by fixing our footprints on the floor of the path we choose, is unique and unrepeatable, because it is impossible to duplicate it, in the same way that Heraclitus explained in his conception of becoming: a person can never bathe twice in the same waters of a river, because they change and flow permanently. To paraphrase him we would say: a person can never make a journey twice in the same way on the same chosen path.

These are the traces of our journey, along a defined path.

I would like to mention a passage from Borges in one of his essay-reports, although it refers to a questioning of the Holy Scriptures (Borges would certainly deny this, and I add: with good reason). I wish to comment on it because I do believe that our steps (physical and in allegories) do describe some form of our feeling and thinking, not to mention our attitudes, and why not? also our future, since to walk, to advance, is to define “a path of the future” or meaning of life. Borges says: Those people thought that a Creation prescribed by the Holy Spirit was a categorical discourse […] That wonderful premise of an enigmatic book to chance […] Their apology is that nothing can be casual in the work of an Infinite Intelligence. And he comments that every theologian will always be willing to explain it. Borges prefers to give an example and that is precisely what I want to emphasize. He explains: The steps that a human being takes, from the day he is born until he dies, draw in time [and space] an inconceivable figure; and the Divine Intelligence perceives that figure immediately, like that of men a triangular figure. And he adds: This figure has its own motive and function in the construction and economy of the Universe.

I observe it more concretely: it is not necessarily a complex filigree, it is the first step of any day, the direction we take, the sense of our steps, … and of course, it has a personal purpose – encrypted – or a function in the economy of the universe, as Borges points out.

Using my theory of Dintornism, and making an analogy with a painting, we can say that the physical limits of the path we are travelling, which are on both sides of it, is the frame of the painting; what is represented in the painting plastically with lines, shapes, colors, etc. (conformation, configuration, organization), is equivalent to those traces of the route of our journey, throughout the whole of the journey. The interpretation that is achieved from the pictorial work is an equivalence referred to our path and walk (line and body expression).

We can walk as we please: forward, backward, zigzagging, slowly, hastily, etc., with the observation that these traces specifically mark a personal and unrepeatable route.

Our walk (the complete line made up of the traces) is conditioned to not leaving the path, just as the painting is done within the frame.

Here it is indispensable to mention something so that oriental thought on Emptiness can be clarified a little. When reference is made to the fact that all things are empty we must understand – as we have pointed out in our essay on Dintornism – that they are empty because we are directing (using) our senses towards formations (creations, structures, works) that we do not perceive. In the Dintornism system we have called these empty structures “Absence Ensemble”. We are directing our sight towards a space where we cannot see; we are wrong where we think we are going to observe something; simply what we suppose to be in a space absent to our sense of sight, is in another place; our vision is misdirected. We try to hear something where there is no sound; we are wrong to direct our ears to a point where we cannot hear anything; our sense is misdirected because the source of sound is elsewhere. And in both cases we can assure that there is an Absent Set, which allows us to become aware of the apparent reality and re-discover the true one.

Returning to our theme of walking, one difference between the functional principles of the Walk-RWD system and the philosophy of Emptiness is that the latter, through its path, leads the individual to a final place: Nirvana, where he attains freedom from suffering and reincarnation; and in the WALK-RWD system his achievements are obtained throughout his journey, from the beginning to the end; and when he reaches the end point, we have already achieved all the satisfactions and benefits that the Walk-RWD system grants and favors (Future posts THE IMPORTANT IS NOT TO REACH THE END and THE “HOW” IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN “WHAT”).

Taking away the philosophical and religious part from the Hindu concept of suffering, we can say that the WALK-RWD system is equivalent, as it also seeks to eliminate suffering within the physical (body) and emotional (mind/psychic) conceptions; and on the other hand, we can definitely state that it has no relation to the spiritual situation (religious belief) of reincarnation.

Now, the path of Emptiness leads us – very appropriately and certainly – to balance and awareness of the aspects outlined in the table below:

All these aspects are also the practical underpinnings of the Hindu philosophical building of the Mahayana, the religious-philosophical current of Emptiness.

On the other hand, our WALK-RWD system leads us, also in an effective way, to balance and become aware of the aspects that are related at the end of the post.

We try to walk the path, in both systems, to discover and appreciate the absence of things.

In the Mahayana (Hinduism), Nirvana is reached and all these “actions” are interrupted, specifically by being able to achieve liberation from all suffering and reincarnation; while in the Walk-RWD system the relationship is not lost and continues to flow, it is an inexhaustible regime.

For example, in both ways a healing THERAPY – on some physical and emotional ailments – is achieved.

In the Middle Way (Madhyamaka), applied in the Mahayana, we are strengthened physically and mentally, by generating, through various states and conditions, a transcendent reflection, which leads us towards the interior of a light, which has its own and real nature – all things have that natural characteristic of being empty – and by an infinite illusion (maya) that is impossible to escape from, and that furthermore, one does not wish to escape from it, because one is receiving a healing generated by the Mahayana system. In the Walk-RWD system it is not necessary to “enter” into an infinite illusion, but simply to follow the natural behaviors of the human being, the paths of the human condition, such as walking, and all the results that will be obtained, of the extraordinary type, are not super-natural.

We can face the ordered or the disordered, the positive or the negative, the good or the bad, the corrupt or the uncorrupted, the just or the unjust, the true or the false, the healthy or the unhealthy, etc., by setting ourselves to walk as an active and yet reactive operation.

Returning to sensory perception, in both healing currents, actions are a consequence of our perceptions, of what our senses perceive, of what our organism (body, mind and spirit) feels.

In the Madhyamaka (Eastern thought and feeling) the stimuli and reactions are oriented more by the sensory channels and less by reason; whereas in the WALK-RWD (Western thought and feeling) system, both – the stimuli and reactions – are oriented more by reason than by the sensory channels.

A fundamental element, common to both processes, is the walking of the middle path; in both, actions are carried out that encourage and stimulate each other, and each of these actions (activities, mental-emotional aspects) serve as a motor to invigorate and move along the whole path, and always keeping away from the extremes. In both methods, too, time is usually ignored, i.e. they are so dynamic and efficient that one arrives at and remains in the total abstraction of external circumstances and stimuli (agents), keeping one focused on the respective purposes of one or the other process.

In the Mahayana, as one moves through and advances in the process of preparation and learning (doctrinal training and formation), one comes to know and understand Existence (Samsara) and this training-learning is achieved through a continuous practice of sensory perception, knowing things and the interrelationship of all of them, but always through the middle way (Madhyamika), that is, without touching or experiencing the extremes.

Some thinkers say that the practice of Mahayana leads to the fact that it can be achieved or not, that it can happen or not, that it can result or not. However, our interpretation leads us to believe that the Mahayana leads unfailingly, through training and education, eliminating ignorance, to achieve Nirvana and Awakening, because it is possible and achievable, there is no doubt about it, and the possibility of not achieving it must be eliminated.

According to these forms of correspondence and identity that exist between the Mahayana and the WALK-RWD system, we will be able to emphasize the 3 activities structured within it (reading, writing and drawing, while walking), developing them – as we have expressed in their respective posts – in a moderate way and none of them should be placed in extremes, but should be within a path, way or middle way, that is, “the most important or main activity” and “the less important or trivial activity” are omitted; It is not necessary to live in the past and in the future, only to live in the present; the past is false and the future more so, the here and now are true (Post THE “HERE AND NOW” WITH THE SYSTEM); that is to say, time does not experience these two extremes, the past and the future, both do not exist, except in our minds as memories (already lived) or expectations that are not yet realizable; therefore, to live in the past or in the future is not to live, at most it is to use our mind to remember or to desire illusions or fantasies, that is why it is advisable to go through the middle way, through the present. In everything related to the WALK-RWD system, we must avoid and eliminate all extremes, so that the “walking” must be done by that middle way, within the extreme limits, and the 3 structured activities (reading, writing and drawing) must be kept also by that way.

Finally, I would like to comment that, just as we have condensed the aspects of the Mahayana school that we believe allow us to reach a balance and become aware of them all, we also list below those aspects where the WALK-RWD system has shown (proven) its real and positive effectiveness.

(*)One theoretical graphical-analytical way to better understand how these confronted processes work, is by using vector theory; I emphasize: just to understand it better (Essay in progress on Emptiness using Vector Analysis).

So let us achieve this Western-type awareness by putting the WALK-RWD system into practice and observe its relationship to those aspects of Eastern philosophy that are locked into the Mahayana system or Nagarjuna’s school of VACUITY.

Loya Lopategui, Carlos, Dintornism. A plastic-philosophical theory of reality, EMULISA, México, 2012.

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