The impossibility of negativity
One intriguing quality of emptiness is the impossibility of negativity. What is called negative only arises through comparison of two, or more, of what is positive. Positivity is the precondition for existence. This seems incredibly straightforward when seen simply. A cup exists, and it is positive, because it exists. Thought is the culprit that establishes negativity as a seeming fact, because it can invent the concept of negativity and then call something negative in turn. That is the arrogance of thought.
Thoughts of the negative, such as a person’s death, the absence of happiness, the restriction of freedom, are all positive, because, simply, they exist. It becomes apparent that any existence must be positive, and emptiness is the ground, the zero, the origin. There is no origin of the origin. There aren’t actually negative numbers except for the mathematical inventions. There isn’t below ground. The ground of existence is such a ground that has no below, no under, because all of life flourishes and dies on this ground. Not a part, but the totality of life.
So, strangely, the abundance that one seeks, in money, power, sex, or anything else, is already this existence which can never be negative. When emptiness is the ground, there is only positivity.
Cover photo by Aman Upadhyay on Unsplash
