What is Nothingness? It's like Furoshiki - Being Lazy and Slowing Down

By Kimine Mayuzumi

What is Nothingness?

What can we learn from Nothingness?

These are the questions I started contemplating when I practiced Taijiquan (Tai Chi) and read books on its core philosophy, Daoism, and other Eastern thoughts.

Nothingness is a topic that is too huge to discuss adequately in a blog post. This could be a life-long learning concept and I don’t take it lightly. While Nothingness is a fundamental (pre)ontological point of Eastern philosophy differentiated from Westen philosophy (Kosaka, 2002; Nakagawa, 2000; Rigsby, 2014), I am also aware that there are differences in conceptualizing Nothingness among different Eastern philosophies too. Nothingness is sometimes called Non-Being, Wu, emptiness, Infinite Openness, Sunyata, etc depending on which traditions or philosophers they are derived from (Nakagawa, 2000).

What is rather common about Nothingness is that it does not mean ‘not existing.’ Kitaro Nishida, a Japanese Kyoto-School thinker, considered Nothingness as the true existence deep down within us as ordinary individuals (Kosaka, 2002). Nothingness exists everywhere.

When comprehending Nothingness was quite challenging, I liked the metaphor that Kosaka (2002) used to explain it in his book on Kitaro Nishida’s thoughts. He says that Nothingness is just like furoshiki, a Japanese term for a square piece of fabric traditionally used to carry, protect and wrap objects like clothes and gifts (See the top image).

Here I will share my preliminary understanding of Nothingness by drawing from selected resources and developing the metaphor for Nothingness even further.

What is furoshiki like?

Furoshiki as a piece of cloth can embrace any shapes of objects including triangles, rectangles, circles and even a bottle, as furoshiki is formless and versatile. In my childhood, furoshiki even became the cape of a superhero I played. Furoshiki is also insubstantial because of its flexible nature as it can be folded and become compact.

There are mainly two ways of using furoshiki: casual (for daily usage) and formal (for gift wrapping). In my family, when we travel, we wrap our clothes in furoshiki. Kids bring their own furoshiki and spread it on the floor and start piling their clothes. The tied furoshiki with clothes in it goes into a duffle bag or a suitcase. When we arrive at a hotel, kids simply stick their own furoshiki into a drawer or a closet and keep the furoshiki open so that they can take clothes out when needed. Then the furoshiki turns into a liner underneath the clothes in the drawer.

It is quite common in Japan for people to wrap a gift in furoshiki and take it to their destination. It is convenient not only for carrying but also for courtesy to the gift receiver. Let’s call a gift giver X and a receiver Y. When giving Y a gift, X opens the furoshiki right in front of Y. That is when the gift on the furoshiki shines and grabs attention, and both X and Y bow to each other for gratitude. Once giving Y the gift, X may fold the furoshiki neatly into a small rectangle and stick it into X’s pocket or bag.

Eastern & Western Philosophies

Dominant Western philosophy is purportedly based on the worldview of Being whereby the fundamental existence is embodied in actual beings and their cognition. In contrast with furoshiki, a box as a container could be used as a metaphor for Western philosophy. The box is not flexible but substantial and rigidly compartmentalizing. The box itself has a shape that can accommodate only certain shapes or sizes of objects. It also divides the outside and the inside even when its cover is open. It makes us think of categorization and logical analysis of causes and orientation (e.g., where is the box coming from?) (Kosaka, 2002).

Whereas Eastern philosophy is grounded in the worldview centering Nothingness or Non-Being that is not in our cognitive awareness or within logical analysis. It is rather linked to the subconscious mind (Yang, 2018) or the Unconscious (Nakagawa, 2000) to be awakened, which could be their version of true consciousness. Thinking could be “regarded even as a disturbance to the realization of truth” (Nakagawa, 2000, p. 18).

Nothingness as furoshiki

Nothingness is like furoshiki for the following reasons. Unlike Being, Nothingness or Non-Being is insubstantial, formless, and empty. Because of that, it is universal in the sense that Nothingness can embrace everything and anything (Kosaka, 2002).

In addition, furoshiki allows an object on it to come to exist as soon as being placed in the center of a furoshiki as if the very object attains a spotlight. (Remember the gift giving process between X and Y mentioned earlier.) We may see the interdependent nature between the insubstantial furoshiki and the being (the object). Furoshiki as emptiness has the power of shining the object on it, which brings our attention to the object’s very existence, name, functions, and characteristics.

Nothingness also allows substantials, Being, or “having” to arise to their existence and exhibit their respective natures (Kosaka, 2002; Rigsby, 2014; Yang, 2018). This idea is central in Daoism. Yang (2018) explains in his Qigong interpretation of the Dao De Jing, “Relatively speaking, nothingness can be considered as yin (陰) that initiates the millions of things (having). Having is the manifestation of nothingness (yin) and is considered as yang (陽)”(p.5).

Furthermore, furoshiki also brings things together. It could compartmentalize objects when it’s filled with them and tied. But as soon as you open the furoshiki, there is no division or borders that divide the inside and the outside. Let’s go back to my kids’ furoshiki method to carry their clothes to their destination like a hotel, as discussed earlier. As soon as they open the furoshiki in a drawer, what they see is a pile of clothes in the open drawer. It becomes one in two ways: 1) No division between the outside of furoshiki and the inside; and 2) togetherness of the clothes and the furoshiki while the former getting more attention.

Similarly, Nothingness actually negates the idea of dualism that two opposite sides or polarities are divided. It is rather for unifying them. This is well-known for Daoism, whereby (Nothingness) “is manifest as the all-encompassing Way or Dao 道” (Rigsby, 2014, p.470). It is one but also there are two like yin and yang.

Now what?

Now that I discussed Nothingness as furoshiki, I see furoshiki differently. I appreciate its profound usefulness despite its simplicity. But, I am also aware that my life and its surroundings are full of boxes. In practice, most of us strive for compartments and categories to better organize our messy lives and feel more in control. Given that, there are times and contexts when and where I need to remind myself of furoshiki or Nothingness. That is one of the reasons why I practice slow walking and Tai Chi, which allow me to focus more on the subconscious mind and embody Nothingness. And I will keep exploring more of it.