Dr. Alok Kanojia

Even a loser is like that presence of something, right?

I'm a loser.

I'm pathetic.

That is the existence of a negative thing, a negative valence thing.

So if you really look at what you are, imagine, Andrew, for a moment, this is going to be hard, but imagine that you only existed for 10 seconds.

What would you be?

Like you'd be almost nothing, right?

You just get this flash of experience, but you have no narrative identity.

You have no sense of self.

All you are is just a raw receiver of an experience.

And like I sometimes empathize with a child when they're first being born, that first shock of awareness.

And you don't know what the hell is going on and you start crying, right?

You have no idea who you are, what you are.

You're just a chunk of receiving.

So there are shunya practices which allow you to connect with the void within you.

And the void within us is actually the most basic part of what we are.

It's actually what's at the bottom.

And so there are some ways to sort of understand what this is.

So if you think about watching a beautiful sunset and you cease to exist, you're just soaking in the sunset.

You don't have any thoughts.