With self-realization and learning the principles behind the human experience you might find yourself in a state of mind which feels unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable. Feeling nothing can be amazing but if you are used to feel a great deal, feeling nothing can leave you with a sense of emptiness accompanied by an experience of detachment or disconnect from the world around you. In one aspect I find this is to be true because breaking free from the illusion around you is a sort of disconnect if you will. But it is not a disconnect from the world you are feeling, it is really a disconnect from the illusion and reconnecting to the truth. In my experience this sensation doesn’t come from you feeling nothing but rather from how you think about feeling nothing in that moment.
Nothing is like the empty space on a page which words can be written upon. Or an empty jar into which liquid can be poured. Obviously the value of emptiness lies in the movement that it permits or in the substance which it mediates or contains. In this sense nothing must come first. Nothing is being. Allow yourself being and try to notice what being feels like. Avoid the temptation to explore nothing with your mind or figure it out. Instead try to experience it with your heart. Notice what’s around that feeling. Notice the presence, the silent hum underneath. Also be gentle and allow yourself some time to adjust and stay in that space of nothing.
From nothing you will find truth.
Once upon a time in ancient China, there was a young man who was so awestruck to learn about the emptiness of existence, he could not stop talking about it. He told anyone who would listen: “When you get to the bottom of it all, you realize nothing has any intrinsic meaning.”
One day, a sage heard him discussing this topic with his friends. “Everything is meaningless,” he insisted. He challenged them to refute his statement, but his reasoning seemed so strong that no one could do it.
The sage joined them and asked the young man: “Why do you suppose that is? Why is everything meaningless?”
The young man said: “Why ask why? Reason is also meaningless. Perhaps there is no reason at all.”
“There is always a reason,” the sage said. “Everything is meaningless because that is exactly how it should be. It has to be that way because its void is what frees you to create your own meaning. The emptiness of a vessel is what gives it usefulness. Existence is a blank slate that invites your creative contribution.”
It was as if a light came on in a dark room. Everyone gained a piece of enlightenment that day. The young man also became aware that he had a lot more to learn.
It is exactly the same with success. What you have here is an open invitation to create your own meaning and contribute your creativity. Make use of the emptiness and fill it with your unique, personal definition of the good life.