Letter # 72: "Nothing Lasts Forever

I’ve lamented over losses, like most of us have. Grief is normal, but “more normal” is the fact that everything is temporary. Nothing lasts.
The mathematical symbol for “nothing" is zero. The concept of zero was first described in the mathematics of Brahmagupta of ancient India (628 AD).
George Bruce Halstead (1853-1922), a mathematician, wrote: “The importance of the creation of the zero mark can never be exaggerated. This giving to airy nothing, not merely a local habitation and a name, a picture, a symbol, but helpful power, is the characteristic of the Hindu race from whence it sprang. It is like coining the Nirvana into dynamos. No single mathematical creation has been more potent for the general on-go of intelligence and power.” [Wikipedia].
However, in my view, Halstead might have missed the essential spiritual point of the zero. Namely, that zero represents the "No-thing-ness" underlying everything. That no-thing-ness is the Being, the Eternal, the Element, or call it what you will. It is beyond time, space and all dimensions.
Zero is scribed as a circle, a mandala, which has no beginning or end, and which represents the unseen, the imperishable and the eternal. Lord Krishna makes that state easier to understand by personifying it: “I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is immortal, imperishable and eternal, and is the constitutional position of ultimate happiness.” [BG 14:27]
The message in 2 Corinthians 4:18 is a profound one: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
In The Holy Koran, that Ultimate State is called Allah, Who is the “Lord of the worlds.”
Guru Nanak proclaims that only the person who is attached to the Ultimate can remain happy. “Taisa harakh taisa us sog; Sada anand ta nahi bhog”, which stanza means: "Joy and grief are alike for him; He is ever happy because he’s never separated from God. [SS Asht 9 p101]
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj realized the ultimate state from his own meditations. He said, “To be a living being is not the ultimate state; there is something beyond, much more wonderful, which is neither being nor non-being, neither living nor not living. It is a state of pure awareness, beyond the limitations of space and time. Once the illusion that the body-mind is oneself is abandoned, death loses its terror, it becomes a part of living.” [“I am That” P 122]
Things don't last forever; but no-thing, or the Ultimate State, lasts forever. What do you think?

God Bless; Allah Hu Akbar; May The Forces Of The Universe Bring You Harmony; Hare Krishna; Radha-Swami; and Nanak Naam Chardi Kala Tere Bhane Sarbat Dha Bhalla.
I wish to express my gratitude for your comments, which inspire me to carry on writing. Please forgive my fallibilities in presenting this material. Also, feel free to send this message on to someone that you might think would like to receive it. If you do send it on, my only request of you is that you send it as it is, in its entirety, and to not alter or modify any of the text, references or authorship information. Thus you will help to give credit or liability to where they are properly due.
Jas Bhopal
Copyright© 2008
References: "The Holy Bible" Online version; "The Koran" as translated by SV Mir Ahmed Ali 2005 ISBN 0-9761870-0-0); "The Bhagavad Gita As it Is" as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN 0-89213-268-X; The Srimad Bhagavatum as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN0-89213-259-0; "I Am That. Talks With Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj” ISBN 0-89386-022-0; The Dhammapada ISBN-10:1-84483-344-5; The Sacred Sukhmani ISBN 81-7205-098-4; Wikipedia.