Zero to 1: Experience Requires Limitation
7 INSIGHTS
I.
Our senses create our perceptions of the world by taking in information, filtering it, and turning it into experience itself.
II.
All experience is a type of limitation.
To see the words in this sentence is to see the balance between black ink on a white background.
The black letters have defined boundaries and shapes that give rise to shared meaning.
III.
If everything ever written was on this one page, then this page would not be legible.
It would have millions of colors and shapes simultaneously on it, making it look like a black void, yet it would contain everything.
IV.
In this way, it is ‘limitation’ that makes information and experience possible.
Thus, all experience is the experience of limitation.
V.
The flip side of conscious experience is awareness of the Absolute.
VI.
The Absolute transcends experience.
It is like the black void; it contains everything but is not anything. It has no shape or definition, so it cannot be perceived by your mind.
VII.
The Absolute can not be experienced, because all experience happens in the Absolute, not to it.
4 Quotes
I.
"In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present."
Francis Bacon
II.
“In silence, you hear everything."
John Cage
III.
"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form."
Heart Sutra
IV.
"Emptiness is not a place to abide; it is wisdom itself."
Huang Po
1 Question
Instead of focusing on the content of experience, the shapes, sounds, and sensations that bring it to life, can you notice the unchanging emptiness that makes it possible?