I follow a path that most will not even or ever consider, much less follow: the path of the empty circle, the path of becoming as nothing. Most, it seems, want to become something (some thing) or somebody (some body), not realizing that things and bodies are invented chimera doomed to dissolution. (My aim here is not to counter dissolution, which aim would be just another groping for false identity.)
The science path shoves aside the nature of the mind as of little or no importance and, at best, relegates it to a fog arising off the neural substrate which disappears when the meat rots. The religious path insists upon identity, proclaiming that those who follow the path (whether buddhist, christian, jewish, islamic, hindu, wiccan, republican, democrat, etc.) will be “saved.”
The two paths have in common the taking of a stance. The science path believes in sub stance. The religious path believes in supra stance. Each takes the circle of existence (circum stance) and fills it with their favorite flavor and their imagery of what is.
I hesitate to write about the path of the empty circle not only because to write about it I have to fill it, but because in writing about it the danger arises of it too becoming a path with ritual and rank and certificates of graduation with some being in the “in” club and giving each other the empty circle handshake and zooming off to the latest empty circle conference as advertised on the Oprah show.
Few have followed this path, become this path. I will point to some of them, their concepts and their lives.
My initiation into this journey began a few decades ago when I was told in no uncertain terms: “Confront the lion in his den. Accept the empty circle."
The science path shoves aside the nature of the mind as of little or no importance and, at best, relegates it to a fog arising off the neural substrate which disappears when the meat rots. The religious path insists upon identity, proclaiming that those who follow the path (whether buddhist, christian, jewish, islamic, hindu, wiccan, republican, democrat, etc.) will be “saved.”
The two paths have in common the taking of a stance. The science path believes in sub stance. The religious path believes in supra stance. Each takes the circle of existence (circum stance) and fills it with their favorite flavor and their imagery of what is.
I hesitate to write about the path of the empty circle not only because to write about it I have to fill it, but because in writing about it the danger arises of it too becoming a path with ritual and rank and certificates of graduation with some being in the “in” club and giving each other the empty circle handshake and zooming off to the latest empty circle conference as advertised on the Oprah show.
Few have followed this path, become this path. I will point to some of them, their concepts and their lives.
My initiation into this journey began a few decades ago when I was told in no uncertain terms: “Confront the lion in his den. Accept the empty circle."
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