Perhaps the most elusive space for human beings to enter is the gap between our thoughts. Usually we stay on one thought until another one takes over, leaving very little unused space. The spaces between our thoughts are brief, and seldom does anyone wonder what it would be like to have fewer thoughts, or what we’d find in the void between them. But the paradox is obvious. Thinking about what it would be like to be in the gap between our thoughts… is just another thought. Rather than expanding that space between, we move on to more thoughts. So why should we concern ourselves with entering the elusive gap? Because everything emerges from the void.
We get an inkling of why the gap between our thoughts is such a vital concept to grasp, and yes, to enter regularly, when we consider the following: The place of “no thing” is where all that is “some thing” comes from. We need the void of nothing in order to create something. As an example, consider any sound that you might make. Where does it come from? The void, the silence, the emptiness. Without the void, there would be noise all the time.
“It’s the silence between the notes that makes the music” is an ancient Zen observation, which clarifies this idea. Imagine, if you can, music without pauses or silent spaces. Without the pauses for silence, the music would be one infinitely long note of noise. What we call music would be impossible. This is true for all of creation, including the world that you wish to create for yourself. Creativity itself is a function of the gap. The evidence for this is right in front of you.
For instance, when I look out the window, I see a tall palm tree that wasn’t there ten years ago. Where did it come from? A seed. And where did the seed come from? An electron, or a subatomic quark. And where did the quark begin? The gap. The void. The silence. I observe a building that once was empty space. Its origin? In the mind of a human being. In the silence of a gap between contemplative, creative thoughts. I watch a little girl playing outside. What is her beginning? The seed, the egg. Yes, but ultimately it is the pure energy that is the creative force inside the tiniest of particles, from which all that is observable is capable of being observed.
St. Paul said, “… that which is seen, hath not come from that which doth appear.” No, indeed, it comes from the emptiness, the void, the space in between. In the silence between our thoughts, we find the possibilities of creative genius and spiritual awareness that elude us when we remain attentive only to our run-on thoughts.
Think of thoughts as things, which need silence between them to attract and manifest new forms into life. Two bricks can’t be fastened together to form a wall without a space for mortar. The mortar itself is comprised of particles, which require spaces to allow them to become mortar. Our thoughts are the same. They require a pause between them to give life to what they represent separately. This is the gap, and it’s a space that allows us to build, create, imagine, and manifest all that we’re capable of creating with those thoughts.
It’s a place of ecstatic peace and serenity. It’s a place that the ancient ones of the Far East called the Tao, and they were careful to elucidate that the Tao that can be described is not the Tao. I can’t describe the gap. Why? Because to do so is to leave the gap and revert to what is either in back of it or in front of it. I know the bliss I feel when I’m in the gap, but the moment I contemplate that bliss, I’m out of the gap. I think of the gap as God’s house, since God is the omnipresent, invisible force that is in all of creation.
— Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
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