Spiritual Emptiness

Voidness can come from anywhere, mind, vital or from above.

Voidness may be of different kinds — a certain kind of spiritual voidness, or the emptiness that is a preparation for new experience.

There are two types of emptiness, I think: 1) a mere inert condition; 2) a spiritual emptiness to create a sort of vacuum in order to receive a greater fullness.

If it is the spiritual emptiness, then it will not be felt as interfering with the sadhana.

What is the function of the emptiness?

Emptiness usually comes as a clearance of the consciousness or some part of it. The consciousness or part becomes like an empty cup into which something new can be poured. The highest emptiness is the pure existence of the Self in which all manifestation can take place.

Sometimes the emptiness in the vital becomes unbearable in its influence. If it comes only to clean the vital, why such a forceful action?

I suppose because the vital is very forceful in its clinging to old movements.

If the emptiness comes to clear the consciousness, then it would mean that it is something spiritual and comes from above.

Emptiness as such is not a character of the higher consciousness, though it often looks like that to the human vital when one has the pure realisation of the Self, because all is immobile, and for the vital all that is not full of action appears empty. But the emptiness that comes to the mind, vital or physical is a special thing intended to clear the room for the things from above.

The stronger the descent in the morning, the greater is the emptiness in the evening!

If it is a spiritual emptiness, that could easily happen — that is to say, if it is a pressure for the quietude of the vital and physical.

First you wrote, “Emptiness as such is not a character of the higher consciousness…” Then, the next day you wrote, “If it is a spiritual emptiness…” If the emptiness is spiritual, is it not also “a character of the higher consciousness”, just as Light, Ananda, Force, etc. are?

It does not mean the same thing. An emptiness in the mind or vital may be spiritual without emptiness being an essential characteristic of the higher consciousness. If it were, there could be no Force, Light or Ananda in the higher Consciousness. Emptiness is only a result produced by a certain action of the higher Force on the system in order that the higher consciousness may be able to come into it. It is a spiritual emptiness as opposed to the dull and inert emptiness of complete tamas which is not spiritual.

After the noon-sleep, which you have termed as “some kind of samadhi”, I feel a greater emptiness or voidness than at other times. Could you kindly explain what kind of connection the emptiness has with the samadhi?

I don’t know that I understand altogether even now. If you mean that after this kind of samadhi, you feel a greater emptiness or voidness, it is quite natural. To void the being of the old consciousness and its movements and to fill the void from above are the two main processes used by the Force from above.

I feel the voidness of the being but why do I never experience the fullness which usually ought to follow the emptiness?

You have written of the Force coming down — even sometimes of its filling all parts — so what is this “never”? I did not at all mean that there is a mechanical process by which every time there is emptiness afterwards there comes an entire filling up. It depends on the stage of the sadhana. The emptiness may come often or stay long before there is any descent — what fills may be silence and peace or Force or Knowledge and they may fill only the mind or mind and heart or mind and heart and vital or all. But there is nothing fixed and mechanically regular about these two processes.

When my nature is being voided of the old consciousness and its movements, why does the tamas rise up in greater waves than before?

When the working is in the physical consciousness, it is the tamas which is the main physical force that comes in whenever it can.

In such states of inertia does the higher action really retire and keep no contact with the being?

It remains in contact, but not active, and you are not aware of it, because you are too much identified with the inertia.

The emptiness is in the mind, vital and physical. But when the fullness comes, it is in the mind or at most in the mind and vital.

That ought to be quite enough until you are ready for the fuller descent of the Force.

Do you not think an entire fullness of the Force should come by this time?

There is no should about it. It will come when you are ready for it and able to receive it.

You had the emptiness for several years together. But yours seemed to be of a different kind than mine. For you could use it as a wall against anything undesirable.

I never used it as a wall against anything. You seem to know more about my sadhana than I do.

I recall that you wrote that whenever some undesirable activity came, you could retire into this emptiness and take refuge there.

It is very strange if I wrote that; for certainly I never did anything of the kind. I don’t even know what this “undesirable activity” can mean. The Nirvanic peace and calm has a perpetual support but not a refuge in which one can avoid the necessary struggle and play of forces that occur in the movement of transformation. These things can go on without breaking the supporting calm and peace.

For the past few days, I feel much too void or neutral. But I try not to allow any feeling of unhappiness or dullness. For why should only a rapid progress or a flood of experiences be a source of delight and not an empty period which prepares that state of progress?

There is no reason why the void should be a dull or unhappy condition. It is usually the habit of the mind and vital to associate happiness or interest only with activity, but the spiritual consciousness has no such limitations.

If it is real emptiness, one can last in it for years together, — it is because the vital is restless and full of desires (not empty) that it is like that. Also the physical mind is by no means at rest. If the desires were thrown out and the ego less active and the physical mind at rest knowledge would come from above in place of the physical mind’s stupidities, the vital mind would be calm and quiet and the Mother’s Force take up the action and the higher consciousness begin to come down. That is the proper sequel of emptiness. But nothing of this has happened because the “emptiness” could not complete itself, that is to say, the true silence and peace —

There is no such thing as néant. By “void” is meant emptiness clear of all contents except existence pure and simple. Without that one cannot realise the silent Brahman.

To be an empty vessel is a very good thing if one knows how to make use of the emptiness.

The emptiness felt in the mind and physical is calm and quiet. But in the vital, though peaceful, it seems to take a dynamic form. It acts like a powerful bellows and I have to concentrate on it in order to bear it.

I don’t see how emptiness can be like a bellows? Do you mean that there is a force that acts on the emptiness like a bellows or that there is a breathing. The latter often happens when a Force is being brought down and there is some difficulty.

I feel only a powerful breathing but not the Force that is being brought down.

You feel the process but not the Force that is acting. That is quite possible.

Today’s emptiness is greater than the last fullness! It sinks deeper and deeper. There is also a difference in the place it is felt. It has occupied the area between the navel and sex-centre.

If it is only emptiness, there is nothing wrong. Alternations of emptiness and fullness are quite a normal feature of experience in sadhana.

Every evening an increasingly greater emptiness comes in the mind, vital and physical. The vital feels it more deeply. What is this emptiness and why only in the evening?

It is the emptiness, I suppose. I can’t say why it comes in the evening. It is, I presume, a rhythm it has taken.