my feeling is that we honor Source with our being.
Source is the life-spark energy that flows into and through us.
by minimizing 'resistance' to the flow, we enable Source to experience itself
more clearly.
we (beings) are the conduit for the energy exchange -- we are the pathway,
the journey of Source energy from and back to itself.

it's mysterious. & wonderful.

How amazing it is if we can be there,
It reminds me of a quote " We r all already buddhas."

I have heard somewhere that there is perhaps a distinction between "no thing" and "nothing." :)

Perhaps We are Buddhas playing a massive role playing game in a matrix we call living life. It's the ultimate simulation game and once we awaken to the fact, we are free to access all the cheat codes! ^_^

It's pretty common when somebody reads a Zen or Taoism quote about nothingness or no-thing or some statement like.... You need to let go of everything, be empty, don't sit and think, just sit...they immediately go to "Oh you are like a drooling vegetable!" In fact, that has been said in this thread somewhere.

That mindless zombie concept comes up if you mention the idea of dropping teachers and teachings too. Just being in the moment free of opinion and belief.

But really, dropping all the mind stuff and being free of it as you meet life takes a lot of awareness. It is not like being a drooling zombie at all. You have to question stuff we never question. You have to question what is in your mind right now and ask yourself why it needs to be there. It's there because you never questioned it. You were in a type of habitual state. So really "nothingness" is the exact opposite of what people conceptualize it as. It is being more awake and aware.

I think nothingness and no-thing actually is a certain kind of on-going constant response to things. Instead of just accepting the thoughts in your mind, you question them and thus can drop them, you get a higher perspective over them... but it's ongoing. It's like exercising a muscle, you keep "flexing" to stay in this awake state where you are aware of arising thoughts and you then change how they affect you.

I guess advanced people who are able to reside in this state permanently. name it no-thing or nothingness as a way to describe it to people who let their consciousness be fixated on "things" or thoughts.

Nothingness=emptiness.

It is not a questioning of ones thoughts. That is still dualistic in nature and not what the Buddha was talking about.

The first time someone tends to experience this is during meditation. When you are truly in the present moment and not grasping after thoughts they become energy. It is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi and is a very advanced state of Samadhi.

You become that energy and in that moment realize that you and everything are like clouds. They seem to have form but are really empty, just energy.

With greater depth one begins to experience that energy flowing through them 24/7. You can learn to reside in that energy and experience oneness/emptiness of that which is around you.

With increased depth from there you become one with that energy. You are the flow, the Dao. You can just be without thoughts as that which is flows through.

In Dzogchen that is called Rigpa.

When in conversation you still have thoughts you just let them flow, one is not lost daydreaming, you are just letting them arise from the silence from within.

This has been my experience anyways.

Hope this helps,

Tom

Yes that's right. But I think the questioning of one's thoughts leads to it. Maybe a better way to put it is, "being aware of what one's attention is on" because most of the time we are not really aware that what our attentions are on or that fact it can be changed. We are unaware that our attention is habitually on some idea from the past. Really the option to not have the attention on the past is not available until we notice that's where our attention is.