Nihilism | Encounter with Nothingness

Nothingness is generally considered to be analogous with death and extinction which every healthy living instinct wants to avoid. Many find the notion of nothingness unfathomable.

Japanese philosopher Keiji Nishitani, however, was convinced that the way out of nihilism, that which renders meaningless the meaning of life, could only be reached by gazing into the abyss itself.

Nishitani understands human existence as consisting in three fields: consciousness, nihility and emptiness. Nihility is as part of the fabric of reality as Being is, it is relative nothingness, and emptiness is absolute nothingness, where the “absolute negation” as the negation of negation becomes the “great affirmation”.

In the openness of śūnyatā realised by nihility overcoming itself, one completely oversteps the confines of self-consciousness and comes to be free of egocentrism, anthropocentrism and even theocentrism, thus allowing ultimate reality to manifest itself in all its fullness.

We will be focusing on two important works of Nishitani: The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism and Religion and Nothingness.

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📚 Recommended Reading

▶ Religion and Nothingness
▶ The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism

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🎶 Music used

1. Mesmerize – Kevin MacLeod
2. Dark Ambient Background Music - The Lost – CO.AG Music
3. Mysterious Ambient Background Music – The Rake – CO.AG Music
4. Peaceful Ambient Background Music – Heroes – CO.AG Music

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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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📝 Sources

- Nishitani, K. (1990). The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism. Translated by Graham Parkes with Setsuko Aihara.
- Nishitani, K. (1982). Religion and Nothingness. Translated with an introduction by Jan Van Bragt.
- Phillips, S. H. (1987). Nishitani's Buddhist Response to "Nihilism". Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 55(1), 75-104.
- Bragt, J.V. (1987). Religion and Science in Nishitani Keiji. In Zen Buddhism Today: Annual Report of the Kyoto Zen Symposium (No. 5-8, p. 161). Kyoto Seminar for Religious Philosophie.
- Smith, J. R. (1994). Nishitani and Nietzsche on the selfless self.
- Heisig, J. W. (2001). Philosophers of nothingness. University of Hawaii Press.
- Parkes, G. (2015). Nishitani on Practicing Philosophy as a Matter of Life and Death.
- Balogh, L. (2020). Nothingness, the Self, and the Meaning of Life: Nishida, Nishitani, and Japanese Psychotherapeutic Approaches to the Challenge of Nihilism. Journal of Philosophy of Life, 10(1), 98-119.
- John Vervaeke - The View from Above: A Transformation of Perspectival and Participatory Knowing
- Nihilism and Non-duality w/ Jared Morningstar - Voices with Vervaeke
- Religion and Nothingness (Keiji Nishitani) - Introductory dialogue
- Religion and Nothingness Q&A with Tetsuzen Jason Wirth

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction: Keiji Nishitani
(4:24) The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism
(8:12) Religion and Nothingness
(14:36) Consciousness, Nihility, Emptiness
(19:13) Cosmic Individual

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Thanks for watching, I appreciate it!

#nothingness #nihilism #nishitani

[Eternalised]

*“Nothingness is not set in opposition to being, but is part of being.”*


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[self-inflictedphilosophy]

The answer is to live through the whole of nihilism. To surrender the self to the harsh truths of reality and come out the other side resurrected. Indeed. The only way to overcome nihilism is to surrender to it completely. To integrate it as you would integrate your shadow.

Let the existential dread wash over you. Let it crush you. Let it break your heart. Then take your brokenness and put it back together into something stronger, something that can seek, or even better, create meaning despite meaninglessness. This way you are no longer under any delusions of grandeur, or placating sentimentalities. You are, instead, soul-sharpened, resilient, and robust—a force of nature to be reckoned with.

[kendrickjahn]

“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly. What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness.”-- Marcus Aurelius

[Lexthebarbarian]

“Rehearse your death every morning and night. Only when you constantly live as though already a corpse (jōjū shinimi) will you be able to find freedom in the martial Way, and fulfill your duties without fault throughout your life.” - Hagakure

[ethanblaine]

I find comfort in the idea that there’s nothing. The pointlessness makes me free. I am who I chose to be and when I die, I’ll fade away and rot in peace

[richardlanier]

"If you forget yourself, you become the universe."

[k.w.]

I am in the midst of a nihilistic journey. To see the world as a grain of sand. Yet still find enjoyment at the beach. The meaning of life is simply to be alive. Accept life as an expression of infinite creation. This video gives me much to contemplate. It seems to me the bottom line is "having received a human life, do not waste the passing moments." But what is a worthy expenditure of infinite creation? Service. Pleasure. Nothingness. Nothing matters, no one cares, do what you like!

[disheveling]

Lovecraftian horror is an example that comes to mind, of individuals losing their minds with truths that can't be comprehended. The Cosmos was a metaphor for the recesses of the human mind, a cautionary tale and a window into madness. A lot of other media follows a similar path, many of which were probably inspired by Lovecraft.

I think that 'emptiness' will never fully be known or experienced by humanity, regardless of our ability to seek and find enlightenment. There is something profound within us that connects the species, even all life forms. A sort of brilliance formed from biology operating in patterns we can't currently recognize, associations deeply embedded into genetic code.


We may come close to understanding, participating in profound spiritual experiences, but I don't think it is something we have the capacity for. I think seeking out this part of us without end causes us to fall into corruption, or falling into that emptiness and losing the sense of self. I think that we become gods when we break this barrier and observe what we can't understand, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. Instead, the answer is to teach ourselves to recognize and draw from this source, to encourage ourselves to recognize the shared brilliance within us, its capacity to cause us to do great things, both good and bad.

Become aware of our capacity to cause both devastation and nourishment to the world, know the self and draw from a divinity within to spur creativity, passions, to ultimately exist outside of the self and serve a greater purpose. Right?

[thraftofcaanan]

I've struggled with existentialism and nihilism for most of my adult life, and being 28 now has made it much harder to cope with but this video gave me a lot to think about. Even last night I was getting ready for bed but ended up standing in the kitchen doing nothing in the dark for 20 minutes just thinking. The crushing nothingness has rendered me useless some days, but I'm glad I now have some perspective to work with in order to help with it.

[LuisFlores-mctc]

You can not overcome nihilism, you can only pass through it and shroud your being in it and accept, be at peace with it. Also this vid is great in understanding the importance of religion and philosophy to the human experience. Despite their illusionary nature they are useful to us, we ultimately make the choice to internalize these ideas in spite of the crushing cosmic nihilism that is apparent. Thank you for the great content 🙏

[ibbtcky]

It is interesting to me how congruent this was with my first ever DMT trip!
I remember approaching it as a death of myself.
I took my first hit, and closed my eyes, and went to a space that was timelesss, eternal, and completely fulfilled, overwhelmingly so. It was too much, my mind told me "there is no time, there is no time"
I got out of the car I was In and when I opened my eyes I saw through the earth, an emptiness that went on forever, and I felt myself as the emptiness. It hurt so so so much, I said to it "Oh my god! You're so alone, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry! I love you, oh my god"
It felt like a hole had blasted through my entire being.
I cannot describe the level of suffering that I felt when this happened.
I remember We were next to a body of water, and I thought to put my hands in the water to ground myself from such an alien experience, but when I did the water didn't feel the same anymore. It felt like something much more than I ever considered before.
I cried a lot, I know that In death I will go back to that emptiness. But I am certain this emptiness is full of all things.

[akram]

Wow, finally I found something I can relate to, everything you said I experienced it and I become united with my own reality. Thank you very much for sharing this.

[johnytwotimes]

Wow this channel is great. These topics are feeding my curiosity some of the best cuisine on YouTube 🙏 So glad I subbed.

[constant]

10 out of 10 but its impossible to sleep after hearing something like this i cant even put a word to describe this type of thinking or feeling.

[estherbuschgens]

Our death, our encounter with nothingness eventually, humbles me. We cannot experience non-existence. There`s nothing to fear. It is our self awareness or ego, that fears the ending. But I have more fear of an eternal life. I have had and still have at times "a loss of my "self. There`s a tremendous fullness of life, in those moments. An interconnection which is so enlarged I can`t even begin to describe. And then, the self catches itself again. There`s nothing beyond death. All is life. Because there`s no such thing as a human awareness of non-existence. And thus I take all the moments now, as they unfold all by the self. We only suffer because we wish for something different. Not accepting the truth of our situations, reality. Indeed.
Practicing your death before you die is, to me, the most relaxing and calming exercise while going off to sleep at night. There`s no real life without death. _/\_

[psychosophy]

I keep referencing all existential/nihilist philosophers to Irvin Yalom's - Existential Psychoterapy. I can no longer immerse myself into new philosophers' perspectives, including Keiji Nishitani's take on nihilism, because I reduce them all to the concepts presented in that book. I definitely recommend it.

[demohidu]

I've never heard of Keiji Nishitani until now and yet I'm surprised by how much of his view point I've come to feel. Excellent video.

[noompsieOG]

My uncle died suddenly of a heart attack last week aged 57, it’s made me re acknowledge the futile meaningless struggle we all engage in for what? The fact we surrender our time here on earth in return for money (not much) that adds upto counlless hours that could have been spent with family or loved ones or something one deems joyful. We willingly sacrifice and surrender more than a third of our lives not doing what we want or what we think is meaningful but instead convince ourself we will live for a long time. Just call your parents or someone you care about and tell them you love them because within 80 to 100 years every single person in these comments will be dead and gone and the only evidence you or any of us existed is right here in this cold lonely boundless abyss call YouTube comments

[mell]

The thing I have to continue to figure out is that animals don’t have an existential crisis, but they are complex life just like us and I also believe, since everything is connected, they are also deeply spiritual. So animals and nature don’t think about nihilism and surrender themselves to it, leading me to believe they know something we don’t. Like our own ability to conceptualize nihilism blinds us from a greater truth but is also a path to it.
Also, John Butler helped me to go down this path of thinking, you should check him out if you are willing.

[tonygroulx]

The most difficult part of spiritual transformation is the death of the self, which entails internal suffering, turmoil, and doubt. The Book of Job, and the story of Christ in the gospel, are my favorite tellings of the movement from spiritual death into rebirth.