Coming to Nothing

[Russell Smith]

Email response to a student about Doubling and coming to the Nothing. Student’s text in Blue. Added comment from my wife in Green.

Hello my esteemed friend,

It appears that you have a fundamental grasp on the Idea of Doubling in order to reach Nothing. I shall comment on your text and provide additional information which you may find helpful.

"My intention is to do the exercise as you design and present it. You are my beloved guide. When I double, I do it somewhat like the two ends of the stick exercise (but not quite); i.e., Mr. X as Hasnamus and Mr. X as Messenger of God, I hold those two views simultaneously, one in either hand. My mind demands one or the other; I feel the forces pulling in opposite directions. I stay centered. It is uncomfortable. I see my resistance to the tension and my desire to flee. I turn towards the tension and embrace it. Boom, I am free. I am Nothing; not sensation, movement, feeling, thought, or self-conscious. Yet this Nothing, this Invisible Presence, sees, cares, cries and chuckles."

You are right, your example is similar to the "two ends of the stick", the "insulate yourself", or the "active reasoning" exercises as they eliminate things before or after you encounter them… and are great ways to free yourself from the subject of those exercises. My "Double or Nothing" exercise is more like something you carry around in your pocket and, instantly, pull out, as needed, to defeat the sword of Damocles when it appears over your head.

"At last, oh most patient One, what I think I hear you saying is rather than holding them apart, you bring them together; you smash them together and get the same result. Ah yes, Boom. Quicker. Same place. Okay. Got it. Interesting."

There you go. (1) You do need to do the "two ends of the stick", the "insulate yourself", and the "active reasoning" exercises prior to engaging in life in order to free yourself from things before or after you encounter them, i.e., in the safety of your room, you can hold two things apart (opposites) for as long as needed… until they finally cancel each other out. Or as someone once said, "Until you get your mind right". (2) But many things that happen in life happen in a moment that was not not covered in the brochure titled, "Anticipated Perils of the Journey". For them, you need a dependable weapon that you can always whoop out, in a moment’s notice….For this, "Double or Nothing" is the "it" in your pocket.

EXAMPLES:

At the moment, when the guy cuts you off and you get pissed off, you whoop "it" out and say, "His injured daughter is in the back seat and he is rushing to the hospital"… BOOM, DOUBLED, pissed off feeling – GONE…

At the moment, when you get upset because the neighbor’s kid left his bike in your driveway and forced you to stop and get out of your car and move it out of the way, you whoop "it" out and say, "Ain’t it great that all the neighborhood kids want to come to my house and play with my kids… boy, my kids are so lucky that they have so many friends"… BOOM, DOUBLED, upset feeling – GONE…

At the moment, when you enter a room and two people that you know start to whisper and you get angry (because you know that they are saying bad things about you), you whoop "it" out and say, "Oh my God, they must be planning a surprise party for me and want to keep it a secret so as to not ruin the surprise" … BOOM, DOUBLED, angry feeling – GONE…

At the moment, when you are sad because you lost a $20 bill that got blown out of your hand, you whoop "it" out and say, "Some nice young girl, who is in a desperate place, is gonna find my $20 bill during a moment of despair… and for her it will be a life saving event – and become a self remembering moment – one that, when she looks back, will always make her smile… BOOM, DOUBLED, feeling sad over your loss – GONE…

The aim, of course, is to become nothing. Thus:

If you can Double an undesirable feeling at the moment it occurs, sweet… that will, instantly, bring you to nothing.

If you cannot think of a Double, at the moment of experiencing some undesirable feeling, and it takes you several days "to get your mind right"… and finally think of a Double, sweet – even though you had to suffer through several days of being pissed off at your neighbor – you did make it to nothing.

If something, in the course of your life, has placed a bad taste in your mouth… and having discovered it, you then used the "two ends of the stick", the "insulate yourself", or the "active reasoning" exercise to hold up some ‘opposite’ against it – until it is finally annihilated – sweet… the state of nothing, is also achieved.

Of course, after reading this to my lovely wife, she said, "You know, looking back at my journey, there were some things that I did not want to double, I liked my suffering… or I enjoyed the illusion that "I was right"… and I knew that, when those things did come to nothing, I would lose them and could not enjoy them any more… so I put them off till later… or I shoved them to the very end. But, if a man really wishes to be free and he keeps working on himself, he, most likely, will finally get enough courage to slay those nasty bastards, too… I did".

Ah, the wisdom of the minor oscillation, eh?

Well, nadaman, I guess that covers it.

Hope it all makes great sense.

Know this, I will be checking your pockets. /smile

Love in All and Everything,

Russ

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