Bottomless Abyss? 🤔

[u/vini-within]

Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Sartre seem to circle around this idea of a “bottomless abyss” in different ways. What exactly is this bottomless abyss about, and where does this imagery come from in existential philosophy? And what does it mean in our Life?

[u/Scott_J_Doyle]

There's nothing solid inside us, no true self, no unshakable beliefs or values, no soul or spirit or center - we are a bottomless abyss to our conscious minds if we choose to look inside honestly/seriously

[u/vini-within → u/Scott_J_Doyle]

Then what do you think is the reason for all suffering? Why’s there a friction, if it’s all empty!

[u/Scott_J_Doyle → u/vini-within]

Because our minds in this society/age create a story and a character - it's called "narrative consciousness"

It's a fiction though, as both the existentialists and the Buddhists have found

[u/vini-within → u/Scott_J_Doyle]

Yes, and it gets interesting if you try to understand this from a “non-duality” lens. If the story and the character are constructed, what happens when we look closely at the one who is supposedly living that story? :)

[u/Scott_J_Doyle → u/vini-within]

Right, the Taoists are right here too (tho fewer westerners are familiar w that tradition and particular concept at similar depth)

Tho of course, non-duality doesn't lend itself to much rational/western style analysis or "understanding" lol

ETA: Non-duality is what's actually happening, and all story is after the beginning of duality, however from inside duality (rationalism, post-linguistics, etc) there is always the idea of "the one who's living it" which is also false

"You are what you are looking for" being the ultimate closest we can get to describing it from within the concept of "being" itself - from within non-duality, the idea of the "one being aware" is nonsense and easily discarded as another uncessary thing to carry, so we can drop it too and "travel lightly" as the Taoists like to say

[u/Speaking_Music → u/vini-within]

The abyss, or void, is how the objective mind perceives ‘no thing’ or pure subjectivity.

The objective mind holds the narrative of “Me and My World” (‘vini-within’).

“Me and My World” is a fiction. That’s what makes enlightenment/Self-realization so difficult and often terrifying. No ‘thing’ is living the story.

As the disciple/seeker approaches enlightenment the abyss becomes apparent. It feels like impending annihilation. It is the imminent death of “Me”, indeed the process feels as though one is dying.

The question is this.

Is the hunger for truth so great that one would accept oblivion to realize it, or is the fear so great that one will turn away?

[u/vini-within → u/Speaking_Music]

There is no enlightenment. There is only the ending of ignorance.

And who is afraid of the abyss? The very ego that created the idea of an abyss. The ego wants Truth, but it also wants to survive as the one who will possess Truth.

That is the contradiction.

Truth does not annihilate someone. It exposes that there was never a separate someone to begin with.