HW 30: Psychological and Philisophical Theorizing of Cool

Often we hear about people leaving each other and taking parts of each other with them. We hear about people trying to find that missing piece to fill out that hole in their heart. When we are feeling lonely, we are describing a state of lacking something. Are we really lacking anything? Or do we just convince ourselves that we'll feel better if we had this or that? When we feel like we are lacking something, we purposely go out and find something to fill the "void", whether it be a person to fill our hearts or hobbies to fill our schedule. Anything to make us feel like we have something to do and that what we're doing is meaningful. Otherwise we'll just feel like another ant on earth, neglected and insignificant.

Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher believed that the emptiness felt by our generation was a result of spiritual emptiness. People have become lazy thinkers where everything they try to figure out is more about scientific logic than self acknowledgment or "enlightenment" as the Buddhists call it. The feeling of emptiness is refer to as the "hunger of the soul" and in order to fill it up people turn to "food, excitement, substances, relationships, [or] consumer products." Nonetheless, these things can only provide temporary happiness.

In Buddhism, emptiness is viewed as a positive feeling. It is seen to be a spiritual awakening when we realize that all objects in the world are only "appearances of our subjective minds" and that they have no inherent existence in the world. The saying "form is emptiness; emptiness is form" perfectly describes this. The things we see and feel are all interpretations of our minds. They are all "empty." This relates to Plato's theory that our perception of an object relies on our senses and the physical object itself. But this doesn't give us its essence at all. Therefore, it has no inherent existence. Buddhism taught the "emptiness of emptiness." The essence or purpose I would say, of emptiness "is empty of inherent existence." So that would mean that all our efforts of trying to fill up this void is not necessary. We feel like the essence of emptiness is a hole that needs to be patched up because it's broken or missing things. But according the the Buddhist's teachings, essence can not be found anywhere (ie. mind, physical world, "heavenly realm"), so our hole isn't really a "hole." (I think I'm sort of adding a little nihilism into the Buddhist point of view, but I'm not sure.)

Nihilism has more to do with objects having no meaning and purpose. I'm not really understanding the differences these sites are pointing out because what's so different between not having an essence/inherent existence (Buddhism) and not having a purpose (nihilism).

From what I've read so far, the Western's approach to emptiness seems to involve a lot of patchwork which only provides temporary happiness. The vision of cool and happiness is seen to be a cut out shape of the "hole in our hearts." If we followed the Buddhist's ideas, then maybe we would find out that emptiness is empty of essence in itself and that this cut out shape we're aiming for is not what emptiness is looking for.