Emptiness

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It’s a fear of the enormous void that’s underneath me the entire time I’m floating on the surface.

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It’s a fear of how many things are under me that I can’t even begin to list, and how many of them could make me their lunch.

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It’s a reverence for a world that, no matter how many Nat Geo documentaries I’ve watched, is still extremely alien to me.

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That unknown emptiness freaks me out.

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Of course, that may not be the same emptiness that you dread.

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Perhaps yours is, I don’t know, outer space and the thought of its endlessness.

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Or perhaps it’s the feeling of being in the dark and capable of seeing anything around you.

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Maybe it’s the emptiness of being single as your biological clock ticks away.

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The empty feeling of contemplating your own death.

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The emptiness of a life with not much to show in the way of progress.

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That unfinished project you’ve been avoiding for way too long.

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The emptiness and silence between you and that loved one that you had a fight with.

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The void left by the death of someone you loved.

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And we have a very odd relationship with emptiness, don’t we?

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In most cases, we’re taught that we’re supposed to fill, well, everything.

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Fill your living space with stuff.

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Your life with a career and a mate and some kids.

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Fill your bank account or else you’re doing it wrong.

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Fill your garage with a nice car.

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Fill your time with busyness of some sort.

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A hobby or reading, watching, fixing, cleaning, doing something.

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More stuff, more noise, more doing.

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There’s an uneasiness when it comes to the idea of emptiness.

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One of my go-to authors is Rumi.

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Rumi is a Persian poet and Sufi master born in 1207.

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Check out what he wrote about emptiness.

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I’ve said before that every craftsman searches for what’s not there to practice his craft.

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A builder looks for the rotten hole where the roof caved in.

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A water carrier picks the empty pot.

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A carpenter stops at the house with no door.

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Workers rush toward some hint of emptiness, which they can then start to fill.

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Their hope, though, is for emptiness.

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So don’t think you must avoid it.

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It contains what you need.

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That’s from page 24 of The Essential Roomie.

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Notice the inverse way of thinking in Roomie’s words.

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He’s encouraging his reader to see the idea of emptiness as a positive thing.

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Not as a sign that there’s something wrong, but as a sign of opportunity and potential.

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Picture that emptiness you’ve been staring at with dread in your own life.

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Is there an opportunity to see things from a different perspective?

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And before you oversimplify this point by comparing it to the cliche, look at the glass, have full idea, consider what is perhaps the most important point in all of this.

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This isn’t about the emptiness itself.

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It’s about you and what you do with that emptiness.

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Seeing the emptiness as a negative paralyzes you.

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Seeing the emptiness as an opportunity and potential sets you free to move forward and make positive use of that emptiness.

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Let me introduce you to another go-to text of mine, the Daode Jing.

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This is a classic Chinese text written by the 6th century philosopher Lao Tzu.

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Here’s what he says about emptiness in verse 11 of the Daode Jing.

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We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.

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We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.

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We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable.

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We work with being, but non-being is what we use.

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Emptiness is an unavoidable element in our universe.

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Without it, we wouldn’t be able to appreciate non-emptiness.

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I mean, what’s a drinking glass without the emptiness inside except a solid, unusable chunk of glass?

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Whatever the circumstance is for you.

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Whatever shape it has for you.

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Don’t run from it.

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Don’t fear it.

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Respect it.

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Understand it.

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And see it as a reality that brings opportunity for you.

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Opportunity for action, for change, for growth, for creativity.

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And you can apply this concept to whatever the emptiness is in your own life.

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Use it to create something new.

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And let me know how that goes.

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You can write me at contactamusing.gmail.com.

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Thanks for listening.

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Hit subscribe, and I’ll catch you in the next episode.