Śūnyatā, Kenosis, Fanā’
摘要
The unity brought about by fanā’ can be called tawḥīd. Since fanā’ breaks down the individual ego, it leads to an awareness of unity between God and the world. The perfect unity of the individual with God can only be achieved on the condition that the individual be emptied beforehand. I show that fanā’ does not only concern the emptying of the individual, but also the emptying of God. Conventionally, fanā’ is not simply nothingness: it leads not to an absolute nothingness, but rather to a nothing but God. However, emptiness is not a psychological state. Psychological states are finite and definable conditions “full” of desires, anger, or pleasures. At the root of this perception is a dualism: the division of the mind into the conscious and the sub-conscious. The idea of a full god can only create an alternative reality, a reality that can be considered holy, be desired, and become a fetish. Fullness can be holiness, but according to the philosophy of śūnyatā, real emptiness knows no holiness because it is aware that all holiness creates desire and longing.