Ex Nihilo

"Of all the great things to be discovered, the being of nothingness is the greatest." ~Leonardo da Vinci

The great theologians of the Western tradition understood wisely that this creation comes out of nothing: 'ex nihilo.' They found this in the first verse of the Bible, where the earth is created out of 'tohu w'bohu: a formless void.'

But they assumed that a Creator must be necessary to make creation happen. This invention of a creator is an act of the mind, not an immediate perception of what Is. When our mind super-imposes its concept of 'God' onto the ineluctable suchness of the world, we lose the capacity for wonder. We cannot see the dazzling paradox that gives the universe its juiciness: the world is un-created.

No Creator makes it happen. There is no process of creation in time. Neither is there any thing-ness to give weight to no-thing. Every moment, for no purpose, the world simply flowers out of emptiness.

Just as a mirage shimmers in still desert air, so creation shimmers in the void. This is the vibrant playfulness, the dance-nature, of no-thing.

Thinking that it's all something makes us heavy. Knowing it's all nothing makes us light.

Here is a good little article on 'The Physics of Nothing' from the New York Times: LINK

Also recommended is the book, 'Nothingness: the Science of Empty Space,' by Henning Genz, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Heidelburg: LINK