To know something one should have an ‘empty’ mind. For instance if a box is full it has to be emptied first before filling it up. Similarly a mind is to be emptied before being filled. It is a psychological feat and it cannot be termed as being ‘ignorant’. It is dynamic nothing which is equivalent to zero. It is similar to the act of adding fertilizers to the field before sowing. It is not the absence of something. But this blankness is dynamic nothing. It is similar to the status of zero. Zero is capable of converting one into hundred, thousand and so on. It borrows one and keeps it on the left side, the value increases. If it is kept on right side it’s of no use. Many a time the spiritual knowledge that is gained is kept on the right side. In other words it does not make you happier. So unless you become a zero you can not become any other thing. Similarly one who is steeped in sorrow will be able to know the value of happiness. That is the absence of sorrow leads to the absence of happiness too. Conversely the presence of sorrow gives you the ability to enjoy happiness to the full extent. Summer enhances the capacity to enjoy rain. So is sorrow, it creates happiness. ‘Be a zero steeped in sorrow’. It reminds us of Peter Ralston’s curious and paradoxical fact, “the true awareness arises from a state of nothing.” (The Book of Not Knowing)
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