I suppose the concept of being empty in Taoism so you can receive the positive spirit is the main reason why I am trying to understand emptiness in general. Sometimes you think carrot waving is a motivator but it is the emptiness that drives so much. If you don’t have something you need it is even more obvious. The more that is out of reach, the billions of dollars shored up in a small amount of hands makes the drive for anything so much stronger. Even to save some money on a purchase seems like a win with things that are far smaller and probably insignificant in the long run. Yet it all matters. Why is that? It is the emptiness.

All of the things that seem to be missing must be manifested. We have all heard that before. All of the things that are not there must become apparent because of a mindset. Really though it must exist because it doesn’t exist in that space and time. Yet the more that is missing the more we need. That is obvious right? We need what we don’t have. Even mass production can’t fill the emptiness. Say for example something superficial is also an emptiness. Something petty can be empty. A superficial whim needs to be fulfilled. Hunger which can be a matter of life and death needs to be fulfilled.

Almost everything that is missing, absent, and unfulfilled needs something, or to put it simply attracts something. The material world keeps manufacturing more and more and really are we more satisfied? Also most of the world is undeveloped and that drives growth but why is it then that smaller wealthier countries want to stunt their competition? On a base level the struggle within the richest economies creates the desire, or lack, to enhance competition. If goods are affordable and accessible it stops the lack and dampens hyper competition and growth. Yet growth doesn’t mean life is easier, it means there is a lot less which creates more things we actually don’t need. 

I am turning these ideas over in my head because it can be hard to understand why people like myself need physical stuff which is unfulfilling and why when I go to my local area there is nothing there that I actually need. Even if I had all of the money in the world, most of the goods and services in my local area are completely unnecessary for my happiness or survival. There is maybe a small amount of things I actually need. It isn’t there for one individual anyway but I am amazed how most of it is in my current parlance empty or void. Ok the hospital is a bonus, I at one stage used the library religiously. Yet I just mean things like menswear or womenswear that have little to no use, the fast food chains that sell empty nutrition and profit driven banks. There seems to be more and more that creates less and less.