Everything-Nothing( Fountainhead )

Here is a very beautiful excerpt from Ayn Rand's Fountainhead. An architect, Prescott, is giving a lecture to the nascent Council of American Builders, founded by Ellsworth Toohey.

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“And thus the intrinsic significance of our craft lies in the philosophical fact that we deal in nothing. We create emptiness through which certain physical bodies are to move—we shall designate them for convenience as human. By emptiness I mean that which is commonly known as rooms. Thus it is only the crass layman who thinks that we put up some walls. We do nothing of the kind. We put up emptiness, as I have proved. This leads to a corollary of astronomical importance: to the unconditional acceptance of the premise the ‘absence’ is superior to ‘presence.’ I shall state this in simpler terms—for the sake of clarity: ‘nothing’ is superior to ‘something.’ "

And he goes on to say -

"Should you wish to make the inevitable deductions from this basic conception, you may come to conclusions of vast sociological importance. You may see that a beautiful woman is inferior to a non-beautiful one, that the literate is inferior to the illiterate, that the rich is inferior to the poor, and the able to the incompetent. The architect is the concrete illustration of a cosmic paradox. ”

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Wonderful words , aren't they! We spend our whole life trying to mold ourselves to be someone or something . And that someone who we become, shapes us.

Think about the above paragraph - how do you think is a non beautiful, illiterate, poor, incompetent person superior to a beautiful, literate, rich, able person ?

A 'non beautiful' woman is not attached to her beauty, a illiterate human is not bound by his knowledge, a poor man is free from the attachments of money, a incompetent man is free from the pride of his skills.

For most of us, our "identity"(of being beautiful, knowledgeable or rich) binds us and restrains us - a knowledgeable person in the arrogance of his knowledge might underestimate an uneducated. An highly accomplished person might hesitate doing trivial tasks- A beautiful woman, might deprive herself the companionship of a lesser looking man.

Most of us, end up letting our identity restrict us. We deal with 'walls' not 'spaces'. Creating our identity as a 'space' instead of a 'wall', gives us tremendous openness and hence freedom.

The space of a 'knowledgeable' man can be to expand on the knowledge in the universe. The space of a accomplished person can be to make a difference to the world. The space of a beautiful woman can be to spread beauty and wonder.

Creating our identity as a space, creates an emptiness - An emptiness that can take any shape.

Or in other words "Emptiness" creates "Wholeness".
And "Nothing" gives rise to "Everything".

In the state of being 'everything'-'nothing', we have the world.

For a human who is free from all boundaries, who is in the state of "everything"-"nothing" - I am reminded of the very famous Shloka(peace invocation) from the Isa Upanishad -

Poornamadah

Poornanidam

Poornath Poornamudhachyathe

Poornasaya Poornamaadaya

Poornamevaavashishyathe


This is Whole,

That is Whole,

From Wholeness Emerges Wholeness

And If You Take Away Wholeness From Wholeness,

Wholeness Still Remains.