The problem of "nothing" in mystical and esoteric views of the 20th century

The article is devoted to how the theme of “Nothing” is presented in modern culture. The authors emphasize that the category of Nothing, read by ordinary consciousness as a synonym for death, does not carry such a meaning in popular esotericism, which is quite widely represented in the culture of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The article examines two types of particular mystical and esoteric culture, which occupy their niche among other cultural phenomena to interpretations and interpretations of Kabbalah and to the phenomenon of transpersonalism. With regard to Kabbalah, the simple naming of Nothing as the source of the metaphysical picture of the world the Kabbalistic tree, symbolizing the paths of creation, which is present in the ontological aspect of consideration, is recorded. The deep basis of God turns out to be Nothing a continuous potentiality, about which it is di cult to say anything before its manifestation. The abstract and speculative conversation about Nothing is supplemented in the article by its epistemological interpretation as negation, cognitive denial, expressed in the metaphor of the Veil, hiding the origin. In other terminology, the image of Nothing appears in transpersonalism; here we are talking about Emptiness, a conversation about which is typical for Eastern teachings. And if S. Grof directly quali es emptiness as Nothing, then in the descriptions of K. Wilber it acquires the features of freedom and bliss. In mysticalesoteric culture, as the authors of the article show, Nothing is closely connected with Everything, and this leads away from its ordinary sad and hopeless interpretations.