See http://www.gurusfeet.com/blog/fear-emptiness

When we were born we did not see ourselves as anything...we were nothing.

We were given a name, and constantly referred to as the body (ann sit here and be still, john eat your food, sam go to bed, etc.) We learned to identify with out bodies and name, because everyone else does and gives the impression you are as well. This became the box that all things were collected.

As we grew, our successes, failures, etc. landed in the box. You are a good girl or a bad boy, you are smart or dumb, etc, etc. Our identity grew with the mental content collected.

Some of this was deemed bad and so we hide some of the contents (trying to switch them out of better things). Everyone feels insufficient...we learned that the more content the better and so the holes/space around the content has become uncomfortable. We are always trying to fill the spaces and feel whole/complete (full, the box is full). But this will never a happen, there is not enough to ever fill the box.

So we went from innocent children we felt happy (for no real reason0 and complete although there is just space (no content yet)...to feeling not complete and empty because of the space around the content (basically, the mind is causes the trouble).

We are that space/hole/emptiness...we are misidentifying with the content.

Namaste,

~ Eric Putkonen
http://www.awaken2life.org

It's interesting that the mind views "nothingness" as an empty space, a hole. Yet nothingness really means "no-thingness", or no things.

The mind can conceptualize only things, yet there are really no things in truth. When water is coming out of the faucet, is the water a 'thing'? It is not -- rather, it is a flow, a movement. This is nothingness: Flow, movement, activity.

If you go to the bank, then "return" there later, you will encounter a very different scenario (if in fact it's still open, and even still there, not moved to a new location). Different people are there, you will hear different sounds, smell different smells, pens/paper will be in different places, computer screens will be displaying different things, the clerks will be different (or react to you differently), tables will have different amounts of dust on them, the floor will have new scuffs, etc. So what exactly is "the bank", anyway? There is no such entity. That is no-thingness.

P.S. you yourself will be wearing different clothes, have a different hairstyle, thinking different thoughts, behaving differently, feeling differently. You are not an entity either ;-).

And what of the traditional view of nothingness? Well, aside perhaps from some particular emotional state, have you ever experienced it, or known anyone who has? Didn't think so. It's imaginary... there's no such "thing" ;-).

http://www.omkaradatta.info