32) Existence of Non-Existence

The ways of reality are very amusing. Everything seems to be and yet they seem not to be so. In-between these being and non-being lies our life’s reality. We are in such a hurry every day, planning our futures based on our pasts’ associations, that we forget to enjoy the very present moment which forms the brick of our timeline. But how can we? The impulses and the feelings are so strong that they steer our mind too fast to let us notice the beauties. But one must not cross the speed limit! When we are too engrossed in our futile plannings and executions, LIFE gives us a jolt and a jerk that gives the necessary impulse for the mind and heart. These jolts may be in the form of cinematic break-ups of human relations or irreversible deaths of dear ones or a small insult by the one whom we adore a lot or etc. Any of these can form a trigger that sets a kind of nuclear fission of thoughts that burst in the mind engulfing the very nature of us into its its stream of perplexing questions. Few of those are explored below:

Truth and Lie:

When a person speaks a statement, the statement carries with itself a truth value. The statement can either be TRUTH or a LIE. This is the general norm. But, when a person lies, is he speaking the TRUTH? Is not the “TRUTH” that “He is speaking a lie” in his statement, in an implicit form? It is! Though the statement itself may be a lie, based on the contents, the fact that he uttered a lie is a truth and this is what amuses me. In this way, the “TRUTH” always exists either explicitly or implicitly in any uttered statement. Can a LIE exist like this? I am unable to think of any such situation (If you do, please comment) and hence have to conclude that LIE can not exist as a permeating agent. So, TRUTH, no matter what persists – even in the form of a LIE!

Reality and Dream:

Let us say, in our dream, we have dreamt that we are in the garden of blue roses. Then some one wakes us up and we realize that it was a dream. Now I ask, are the blue roses real? What would the answer be? Of course they are not! We are in our room, on our bed and blue roses? huh!?. So, the blue roses are not real. Then, are we real? Yes. Is the dream real? Yes. if we are real and the dream is real, why is the subject of the dream un-real? Ok, may be dream is little confusing and out of bounds to a wake state. Let us say we thought of blue rose. Then what? If we are real and the thought is real, why not the subject of the thought? One may question “Well, if it is real, can you show it or bring it to me?” — Of course we cant, but that does not mean it is not real! Can we show or bring our thoughts to some one else? Aren’t the thoughts themselves (stripped of the subject i.e., irrespective of the “real/truth value” of the thought) real? So, what is reality then? EVERYTHING is reality!

GOD and No-GOD:

It has become a fashion these days to be an atheist. But an atheist rarely thinks his question properly. The fact is simple. GOD exists! How? Am I being biased? Let us see. The above two sections might have caused a train of thoughts by now. This section is also on similar lines. Sit tight!

When someone says “God does not exist”, is GOD not in his statement? If GOD does not exist, his statement has no meaning. A statement is formed by meaningful words. Let us say, the atheist defined “GOD” in his own way (which happens most of the times) by some set of adjectives and then is suggesting that the GOD, which encompasses his defined set of adjectives, does not exist, even then GOD exists in the way he defined. If the word “GOD” does not exist, then the statement is equivalent to saying “_______ does not exist”. Because, the blank has nothing it. In this world, can you really speak about that which does not exist? The moment you think of such an item, it took its existence in your THOUGHT, at the least. 

Past, Present and Future:

Time is the most mystique of all. The past can not be interacted with. Just like the thought, we cant show our past to anyone. May be a video clip, but not all! Even the video clip also can be argued to be of having no proper value (preserving this line of thought for some other day). The future is not yet unfolded. So, we have no way to interact with it. They say we have “present” with us. But how long is the present? Have you ever thought? How long is a “moment”? What is the duration of the smallest time division that we experience? let us say such a thing exists and it is “x sec” (here x can be so small that the units may become nano-seconds or so). Even then, the x itself has a previous moment and a next moment that mix seamlessly due to continuous nature of time. So, the “X” will also be divided into past, present and future – right? So, this division is infinite. Then, do we have the “present moment” with us? It either slips into past or awaits in future!! 

So, at any given moment, we exist and feel this existence as REALITY in our “time line” having no interaction with the “time’s” bricks (past, present future) and yet we interact with time as a whole which we call LIFE! SO STRANGE I would say! Hence, TIME is REAL and ETERNAL and we are parts of it. 

Existence and Non-Existence:

So, coming to our title, let us ask one final question: “Can you imagine someplace where you are not in it?”. Most of us would first think of empty space/vacuum of stellar space. But how do we know its empty? In our thought, if you closely observe, are we not staring at the empty space — black black, and thus thinking its empty? What I am asking of you is, to eliminate yourself from that scene and then think of it. It is impossible right!? We are always there as the “observer” when ever we think of a situation or a thing. Even when we think of the time we spend with our loved ones, we and the loved ones both exist in our thought and yet we observe these two as a third entity! So, in a way, are we not everywhere? Why are we not able to separate ourselves in our thoughts? DO we not boast that we are amazing thinkers and our imaginary capabilities are marvelous? I think this is funny way of GOD/nature telling us that we are eternal! 

Coming to our empty space again, have you ever thought what is “empty”? If something is “really” “empty”, then how should we call that emptiness – IT or THAT or what? The moment you call IT or THAT, that means it is “something”. But emptiness, by general definition, is non-something. Even if we want to say it is an absence of something, then the question would be how should we address the absence? This is limitation of language, one may say! But then, let us go to our powerful tool of thinking. WHen you think of a glass, it has an empty space in it. Let us say we are seeing it in an ideal situation where all air molecules are removed through vacuum pump. Then what do you see? You see a space enclosed by glass. But you say its empty. If its empty, then what is the space that you are able to perceive? The space that surrounds the glass, permeates the glass is also enclosed by the glass, right! Ironically, this “space” is empty! So emptyness permeates and surrounds! How funny is this? Why did we not see through this? Because SPACE is something, we are able to say it permeates, surrounds. If it is nothing, then the statements would have no meaning. Think deeper! So, we do not require Quantum mechanics to say that space is filled with quantum fluctuations. Little common sense, which is not so common, is enough to hint us that SPACE is something, which we called empty out of sheer foolishness.

Conclusion:

 The Thought of EXISTENCE of NON-EXISTENCE itself is an Existential Reality of GOD’s Timeline! 😀

                                        Thank You!