One of the participants, recalling what had been said at the last dialogue meeting at the Swanwick Centre, brought up the question as to what it might mean to embody the emptiness or nothingness that K considers of such central importance in human transformation and wholeness. This topic was instantly embraced by the group, and we went extensively into it.
The context in which this topic appears in the teachings is in the emptying of consciousness of its content, which is how K defines meditation, something he said his teachings are from beginning to end.
First, not all content is meant to be emptied, since knowledge is still necessary, as without memory and knowledge we could not function. So what K means to empty is what he calls psychological memory, which refers to the experiences formed around the psychological entity or self. K wants to empty them because they are factors of fragmentation both outwardly in relationship as well as inwardly. Essentially what he proposes to dissolve is the self, which he considers to be an illusion.
An illusion is something false. As the essence of the psychological self is identification, one way to empty consciousness or dissolve the self would be to see that its identifications are illusory. The perception of the false dissolves the self. Which means that the ‘I am’ has no object. Does that statement of being still support the psychological self? Because the self can also be built on setting itself up against something else, which struggle strengthens its identity.
Linguistically we may need the notion of an ‘I’ to distinguish one agent from another, as action comes from someone and goes to someone or something. But this distinction is purely descriptive and has no further implications. It becomes dangerous when the identifications are taken to be of the essence of being, therefore absolute, which they are not. This assumption of absoluteness or permanence is a major factor of division, conflict and sorrow in the world.
The perception of the limitation of knowledge, and therefore the inherent limitation of all psychological identification, opens a gap between the self-referential movement of identity and the constant flux and renewal of life. It is this gap in the perception of the danger of identity as identification, fragmentation and anachronism – because whatever we identify with is necessarily in the past – that we encounter the needful emptiness, namely the emptiness of self.
This emptiness of self is absolutely necessary if we are to relate without division, if we are to be in contact with what is. So our wholeness does depend, both inwardly and outwardly, on the emptiness or nothingness of the psychological content of consciousness. As St. John of the Cross had said, in order to come to the unknown, we must way by way of not-knowing. That applies not just to the ultimate truth, which is unknown, but to the immediacy of life, which implies that the wholeness of life speaks to the wholeness of being.
K had been clear that emptying consciousness meant both the conscious and the deeper or unconscious layers, which raised serious concerns as to the potential danger of opening that pandora’s box. It seemed clear that this very unconscious had been created by our attempt to banish the undesirable aspects of our personalities from conscious awareness. As long as we do this, the dungeons of consciousness will be full, keeping consciousness perennially busy with itself because it must be on its guard against the repressed content that it fears.
This division, however, has been created by judgement, by calling the shadow side ‘evil’ and then condemning it. This is an essential aspect of our psychological duality which has been encouraged and sustained by religious culture and social morality, which imposes on the self the task of controlling the condemned aspects of itself. So in the name of virtue, goodness and truth, the self becomes its own jailer. And, as the saying goes, a house divided cannot stand.
What would happen if we removed the jailer and the judge? What if we observed emptiness without labeling it as good or bad? What if we approached the whole content of our consciousness with choiceless awareness? Would such clear-sighted and non-dualistic perception liberate us from fear and allow the suppressed content to undergo a profound transformation so that its energy flows as one in the light of intelligence?
In relation to doing this, the question of the difference between intention and intent arose. Intention, it was proposed, is the exercise of will in the search for a preconceived or projected result, which biases observation and perpetuates judgement, as it necessitates measurement. This energy is destructive, for it divides.
Intent arises from the perception of a real question to which we don’t have an answer. Intent is the flame of discontent that opens the way to pure perception and creative discovery. Its energy is not derived from the pursuit of a goal but from the perception of what is out of order. That’s why K’s approach is negative.
We have tried to empty consciousness through suppression of its undesirable content and it’s clear that whatever we suppress does not disappear but is stored away in memory. It only disappears from the immediate purview of the conscious self, but it persists unconsciously. Nothing we suppress is forgotten. It is just kept out of conscious awareness.
The awareness of the inherent limitation, fragmentation and divisiveness of self-centered thought is the factor that suspends the censor responsible for the conscious/unconscious, me/not me duality. This suspension is itself the factor of emptying. The perception of the falseness of control allows the content of consciousness to be revealed and emptied. This is essential if there is to be the quality of inward freedom, with its intelligence and compassion.
This, K might say, is the way of learning, the way to live.
This was a fitting note on which to end the facilitator’s residency at Swanwick Centre. He thanked everyone for their kindness and said he might see them again next year.
Javier Gómez Rodríguez
