Samirahkitty

Ancestral Knowledge

In the beginning, there was only Nothing.
Now, some people would say 'there's nothing in there'.
But they would be wrong.
Because it wasn't just nothing, it was Nothing.

This Nothing was exactly like you'd imagine Nothing would be.
It looked like Nothing.
Now, some would say 'That's because there was nothing in there!'
But they'd be wrong.
Imagine yourself without your body, and without your brain.
Now, listen to your own thoughts.
You're thinking in your native tongue aren't you?
Well, now imagine you had never learned to speak in your language.
How would your thoughts sound like?
Would you even know that you are thinking?
Well, Nothing was a little bit like that.
It was thought without a voice, and thought that focused on Nothing,
because, in the beginning, there was Nothing to focus on.
And that was it.
This one Time, Nothing was thinking about Nothing.
And it realized that, well, it didn't know itself that much. It started asking questions...
'Am I Important? Do I really matter?'
But there was, of corse, no way to answer those questions.
Because there was only Nothing.
So Nothing made a wish.
'I wish to know if I really matter...'
And, because the only thing that could stop a wish from Nothing being granted
was Nothing, the wish was granted.

And suddenly, there was Something.

Imagine that all your senses are working perfectly, but that there's
Nothing to feel. Not even yourself because you have no self, you're just Nothing.
That's how Something felt, it was pure curiosity, eager to see, to hear, to taste, to touch, and to
smell Anything. But there was only Nothing.
So Something wished 'I want to feel Everything.'
So, out of the wishes of Nothing and Something
came Everything.

And Everything was well.
Everything grew and grew without
limits, and in order to feel all of it,
Something chose to turn intself into
shapes and parts of Everything.

Something became fascinated, watching and
smelling and tasting and hearing and touching
Everything.
And it realized that it felt another thing too,
above and beyond and inside
and outside of Everything but different...

It was Nothing,
reminding Something that
there was a purpose it had
forgotten, a mission, that
there was a question to answer:
"Do I Matter?"

So, Something divided and
became Many, and Many
started their search for the
real importance of Nothing.

But Something went wrong,
and Many were confused.

As much as Many tried to find the
Answer, they had a. Because
they became so divided and separate,
Something was lost and Many
had forgotten the Question.

Many thought that they had a better Question,
or a better Answer, and sometimes Many
disagreed with Many, so Many fought a lot
amongst themselves.

So Many lost touch with Something and
Many lost Everything, and Many couldn't
care less about Anything and Nothing and
they only cared about being Many and
staying Many.

Many started to believe that Everything was created
by Something just for their own enjoyment, and
that they shouldn't care about Nothing and that
there was no such thing as 'Nothing', only Everything,
and that Something had always, existed, even
before Everything.

That's how Many forgot that they themselves
were the Something that had began the quest
to find the Answer to the Question made by
Nothing... And Many started looking for
Something without realizing what it was, and
that's why Many started just going around in
circles, getting nowhere...

Amound the Many, sometimes, some would
retain some of the original curiosity, and some
almost remembered, felt a little hint of the
Question and those were the Few, and the Few
were closer to Something and Everything.

When the Few came together in peace, sometimes
they would catch a glimpse of Something,
and they found it beautiful. But they
were Few, and Something didn't show up for
long. Sometimes they tried to make Something
happen by singing, and dancing and
lighting candles.

But, sometimes, the most fortunate of the Few
finally got it, and knew that
they themselves were Something,
and that they were beautiful...

... and that they were Something because they
had each other, and in each other they had
Everything, and when you're Something that has
Everything... The Answer is simple...

... Nothing is more important.
Nothing really, really matters.

Samirahkitty

If you read this far I'm quite proud of you. This is possibly one of the most beautiful things I've read in a very very VERY long time. Now no matter what you believe, I hope a few of you take this thought to heart and take some time to think about it. It's not the story that matters, it's the lesson and this story has a beautiful lesson to be found. Anyway, just wanted to share what making me baw and cry at 5AM this fine morning have a wonderful day everyone and remember you have each other and in each other you are Something that has Everything. Then your realize Nothing is more important and Nothing really matters.

Samirahkitty

btw I put this here because in general the spam bots attack every thread I make >> and I also didn't write this. I just wanted to share

Newnonimous

I strongly agree it's understanding and i find it amazing! I've always thought about it for a long time, ironically though, i always thought that there was something that started "the beginning". like how the beginning existed? are there things beyond beginning and end? deeper than existence? What created nothing? What is nothing? Where is the origin of nothingness? Is there anything beyond nothing?

I know it all sounds silly but i always push my thoughts beyond comprehension and understanding. Theres so many boundaries that i want to surpass. Kinda hard to explain because i'm just too lazy to XD.

Thanks Sami-girl for sharing!

Armonía y discordia son arbitrarias, 無意味な概念...

SCHN!TZEL

That's why I struggle with people who say there's no afterlife, that we just die and that's it. Eternal darkness. My brain cannot comprehend lack of consciousness, or the ability to not hear, feel, touch or think until the end of time. It actually hurts just thinking about it now.

Now I know I'm not the most religious person but I'd like to believe there's some sort of God on the other side, or just the fact that there is an other side at all. It could just be some primal part of my brain assuring myself that everything's going to be OK and I'm not going to die and face an eternity of unconsciousness and lack of thought.

Sorry it was just that description of nothing at the beginning that set me off.

Stand still, Pause clocks, so we can make the world stop.

Newnonimous

It's really up to you to believe what you want to believe. Some People want to assure themselves that they will still live on in the afterlife with God and that's fine. Don't worry about other peoples different point of view that there is no God or afterlife or the next one. Honestly we really don't have all the answers but we strive for it so those speculations come to thought but hasn't been revealed yet. We were given free will after all so others start seeing more possibilities that goes beyond knowledge while those believe in God see only his vision. We have a choice, a lot of people just don't want to except that.

If you want to accept and believe in your vision SCHNITZEL. then embrace it

Armonía y discordia son arbitrarias, 無意味な概念...

Ugetsu

I don't want to take anything away from that piece, @Samirah.

But I do have a couple of comments. The first one is that it sent me off not so much in a philosophical direction, but thinking about humans before they/we developed speech. It is hard to imagine the darkness of a mind without speech. Of course we can look at cats, dogs, monkeys, apes, and see that they can be very much alive and have an active intelligence without speech. But -- I have read a fair bit about all this -- there are known examples of people who spent years without language and then learned it, and those people were interviewed to see what it felt like. What it boils down to is that usually they will have a sort of sign language (not "Nothing" literally) and without words for things you have to re-establish the same concepts again and again and again. For "tree" you can act out "high high up growing thing." There is no way without real language to say "green" or "color"...

The second comment is that the whole piece is such a classic, it really reminds me of late night conversations in the Freshman dorm. That probably sounds like a negative slam, I do not intend it that way. But when you get to college you begin to realize that you can spread your wings, intellectually, and have valid discussions about literally anything. Or Nothing. And that's just what it typically sounds like...