Watch this clip from The Neverending Story where the Rockbiter explains a plight that is destroying his home land called The Nothing.

Personally, I find this description of "nothing" to be philosophically profound.

Rockbiter explains the absence of a beautiful lake. When pressed by his companions to explain, being asked if the lake dried up, he says

No, it just wasn't there anymore -- nothing was there anymore! Not even a dried up lake.

He's then asked, "A hole?"

To which Rockbiter responds with a phrase of near scriptural profundity:

A hole would be something. Naw -- it was nothing.

As a child in the 80's, this phrase hit me square in the soul. I realized that there was in fact an aspect of reality that was indeed "real" -- in the sense that it related with and affected aspects of reality that can be identified -- but could not be explained or described in any way whatsoever.

The characters continue to attempt to work out the nature of this threat, the Nighthob makes another profound realization:

Maybe... it's already everywhere...

What does this mean?

In theology, the most known method for "approaching God" is through the practice of positive or affirmative statements or actions -- to describe what God is. This is called Cataphatic Theology or Cataphaticism, and is the most common practice in Western spiritual practice.

But the approach that we see in the video clip above leans closer to what is know as Apophatic Theology or Apophaticism, which is practice that attempts to approach God by negation -- to describe what God is not.

This might seem like a confusing notion to many Westerners, and that is because apophaticism has been all-but abandoned in Western modes of thought and analysis. It has actually created a form of cognitive dissonance which is clear to see in many modern Christians when trying to explain the Nature of God.

But there are many apophatic verses in the Bible.

Exodus 19:16-21:21 (KJV)

And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish.

Here we see directly how God is described: as a terrible cloud that obscures the mountain. This is apophatic language explaining that God is that which exists among the mount, but also obscures it, because it cannot be explained.

In many ways I am reminded of the warning of Nietzsche:

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.

The whole experience that Moses has with God is described in apophatic terms.

Exodus 33:20-23

And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

In Exodus 3:14, God tells Moses what name he should tell his people to give to God, He responds:

And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.

This passage, if understood in a non-apophatic language, is nothing but a confounding tautology. Yet, if we compare this to a comparable tautological expression in Hinduism, the Name of God will make more sense.

In the Upanishads, a practice called "neti neti" is used to explain the nature of Brahman (the Highest Universal Principal -- essential an Eastern name for what many in the West would call God) by first explaining what Brahman is not.

"Neti neti" translates to "not this, not that" or "neither this, nor that". With this particular approach to understanding the nature of the totality of God, when one asks the question:

Is THIS God; is THAT God?

The answer is give:

God is not this; ;God is not that: specificity does not encapsulate the totality of the Universal Principal, God

What is the point?

As Alan Watts explains in this video, the power of "nothing" is precisely the nature of "something"

He uses the best analogy I've found to describe this, which is this:

there is a cigar in my right hand, and there is no cigar in my left hand.

And in saying this we can begin to see what is the power of Apophatic thinking: in stating reality in the affirmative, we may focus on its specifics; but in understanding what a thing is not, we gain access to a realm of contemplation that approaches the infinite, or Absolute. Because when we understand the identification of a "thing" and also the existence of the "not thing", we will realize that for every identified unit, there is an immeasurable infinity of unidentified units, which collectively assume the title "nothing."

Now...

At the risk of pursuing this topic "too far", I'll rest it here, and simply ask you for your own thoughts on the nature of an apophatic understanding of reality.

What sort of value do you think this way of thinking has, or doesn't have? In what ways can you relate to this?

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