2 The Buddhist and Taoist concepts of emptiness, voidness, and nothingness, in comparison to the "unknown god" in Scripture.
Bruce Lee’s usage of the terms "nothingness", "thusness", "suchness", "no abode", "void" , and "emptiness", remind me of the statue of the “unknown god” in Athens, where Paul told the Athenians and their philosophers who the G-d is, that they do not know. Acts 17:16-31
BRUCE LEE
Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void is all-inclusive, having no opposite-there is nothing which it excludes or opposes. It is living void, because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all beings.
Nothingness cannot be defined; the softest thing cannot be snapped.
Creation in art is the psychic unfolding of the personality, which is rooted in the nothing. Its effect is a deepening of the personal dimension of the soul.
The artistic activity does not lie in art itself as such. It penetrates into a deeper world in which all art forms (of things inwardly experienced) flow together, and in which the harmony of soul and cosmos in the nothing has its outcome in reality.
Repose in the nothing.
True thusness is the substance of thought and thought is the function of true thusness. To think of thusness, to define it in thought is to defile it.
Scratch away all the dirt your being has accumulated and reveal reality in its isness, or in its suchness, or in its nakedness, which corresponds to the Buddhist concept of emptiness.
There will be calmness, tranquility, when one is free from external objects and is not perturbed. Being tranquil means not having any illusions or delusions of thusness.
There is no thought, only thusness-what is. Thusness does not move, but its motion and function are inexhaustible.
No abode means that the ultimate source of all things is beyond human understanding, beyond the categories of time and space. As it thus transcends all modes of relativity, it is called "having no abode" and its qualities are applicable.
PAUL
The ACTS of the Emissaries of Yeshua the Messiah-ACTS 17:16-31
16 While Sha'ul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit within him was disturbed at the sight of the city full of idols. 17 So he began holding discussions in the synagogue with the Jews and the "God-fearers," and in the market square every day with the people who happened to be there.
18 Also a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers started meeting with him. Some asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others, because he proclaimed the Good News about Yeshua and the resurrection, said, "He sounds like a propagandist for foreign gods." 19 They took and brought him before the High Council, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?" 20 Some of the things we are hearing from you strike us as strange, and we would like to know what they mean." 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners living there used to spend their spare time talking or hearing about the latest intellectual fads.)
22 Sha'ul stood up in the Council meeting and said, "Men of Athens: I see how very religious you are in every way! 23 For as I was walking around, looking at your shrines, I even found an altar which had been inscribed, 'To An Unknown God.' So, the one whom you are already worshipping in ignorance-this is the one I proclaim to you.
24 "The God who made the universe and everything in it, and who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in man-made temples; 25 nor is he served by human hands, as if he lacked something; since it is he himself who gives life and breath and everything to everyone."
26 "From one man he made every nation living on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the limits of their territories and the periods when they would flourish. 27 God did this so that people would look for him and perhaps reach out and find him although in fact, he is not far from each one of us, 28 'for in him we live and move and exist.' Indeed, as some of the poets among you have said, 'We are actually his children.' 29 So, since we are children of God, we shouldn't suppose that God's essence resembles gold, silver or stone shaped by human technique and imagination."
30 "In the past, God overlooked such ignorance; but now he is commanding all people everywhere to turn to him from their sins. 31 For he has set a Day when he will judge the inhabited world, and do it justly, by means of a man whom he has designated. And he has give public proof of it by resurrecting this man from the dead."
Scriptures quotations taken from The Complete Jewish Bible, copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 615, Clarksville, Maryland 21069. www.messianicjewish.net/jntp. Used by permission.
