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“To know everything is to know nothing.
Nothing is zero, so zero's my hero.”
- D'Ranged and Damaged, Yaggfu Front
In 1999, while riding in a car with my friends Ryan and Jeremy, listening to Ras Kass's second album Rassassination, someone raised the question: If you could know the future, would you want to know? Ryan and Jeremy wisely answered no; I answered yes. I think I wanted to know so that hopefully, I could live my life differently or at the very least, enjoy it to the fullest. But, did I need to how my life would unfold in order to genuinely appreciate life more? Why did I really want to know? I think I really wanted to know because I was afraid (and to a certain extent still am) to live without knowing the direction my life would take. I realized I would love to defer the responsibility of the direction of my life to someone or something else. I don't want to live in the unknown and I don't want to be caught off guard by the unexpected, yet inevitable forces of aging, sickness, and death.
D'Ranged's verse raises the question: What if I could know everything? What if I were omniscient? If one could know everything, perhaps one would gain power over ones destiny or even better, over the destiny of others. We could control and determine history. We could avoid pain and maximize pleasure. We could waste time living it up like it's Friday night and in the 4th quarter of our lives try to turn it all around. But the truth is, even with knowledge of everything, that knowledge would expand, change and be replaced with new knowledge. Looking deeply into the structure of an atom initially reveals protons, neutrons and electrons, but with increased magnification reveals gluons, bosons, tachyons and quarks. If we could squint with God's eyes, maybe we could see the proposed quantum existence of superstrings and singularities. At a certain point reality starts to fall apart and we begin to see that what we considered to be real is in fact just a collection of momentary data which, under increased scrutiny, falls apart. Eventually we may arrive at something or maybe nothing at all. The same may be true of our thoughts and feelings. The more we look the more we may find an intangibility that defies our ability to label it.
But if everything is nothing, then what is that nothing and does that mean that we are nothing? D'Ranged and Damaged ends his verse with the line "so zero's my hero". Zero becomes not a point of despair, but a savior and harbinger of hope. There is an implicit statement of optimism; the possibility that knowing nothing could reveal freedom. If one could trust in that nothingness, in the zero, one could be liberated from the need to rely strictly on knowing as the sole source of information regarding reality. Maybe the lyrics to the Schoolhouse Rock song by Bob Dorough, My Hero Zero, could provide us with some insight into the importance of zero:
What's so wonderful about a zero?
It's nothing, isn't it?
Sure, it represents nothing alone
But place a zero after 1
And you've got yourself a 10
See how important that is?
When you run out of digits
You can start all over again
See how convenient that is?
That's why with only ten digits including zero
You can count as high as you could ever go...
Forever, towards infinity
No one ever gets there, but you could try
With 10 billion zeros
From the cavemen till the heroes
Who invented you
They counted on their fingers and toes
And maybe some sticks and stones, or rocks and bones
And their neighbors' toes
You're here
And nobody really knows
How wonderful you are
Why we could never reach the star
Without you, Zero, my hero
Zero, how wonderful you are
Place one zero after any number
And you've multiplied that number by 10
See how easy that is
Place two zeros after any number
And you've multiplied that number by 100
See how simple that is
Place three zeros after any number
And you've multiplied that number by 1,000
Et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad astra, forever and ever
With zero, my hero, how wonderful you are.
From this perspective, the nothingness of zero doesn't remove us from knowing but instead allows us to procreate, adding to what was previously experienced as a singular known.
Let's contemplate this: Sit in an upright and comfortable position (on a cushion or chair) with your hands in the meditation posture (place the back of your left hand on the palm of your right hand and let your thumbs touch lightly). Let your eyes rest, half closed and focused on nothing in particular. Let everything in your field of vision just be, without labelling it or judging it. Just let your eyes relax. Sit for five minutes and focus all of your attention on breathing. Feel the complete in and out breath and when your mind wanders, bring your attention back to your breath.
After five minutes, allow a word, a sentence or the entire phrase to arise in your mind and when the word, sentence, or phrase fades, say it gently again. Allow whatever arises to arise without judgement and when something feels real, when there's some spark of insight, rest in your mind and place your attention on it. When your mind starts to wander, bring your attention back to what arose for you. Practice contemplation for ten minutes and then return to focusing on your breath for five more minutes. Focus only on the most subtle of experience. Afterwards, carry whatever arose for you in contemplation practice into your everyday life.
Check this previous post for an explanation of contemplation practice. http://www.hiphopalive.org/mind-spray/2016/12/7/4p2lnb8omwoc5dc5uznhcxii002b89
If there is a verse you think should be contemplated or think I should discuss, let me know in the comment section below.
Hiphop Alive
Justin F. Miles is the founder of Hiphop Alive and pioneering practitioner, theorist and educator at the intersection of Hiphop culture, mindfulness and contemplative studies. He is the leading voice championing the use of Hiphop infused contemplative modalities to foster resilience, emotional intelligence, and community empowerment.