The Function of Negative Knowledge

...the function of negative knowledge is not unlike the uses of space-the empty page upon which words can be written, the empty jar into which liquid can be poured, the empty window through which light can be admitted, and the empty pipe through which water can Bow. Obviously the value of emptiness lies in the movements it permits or in the substance which it mediates and contains. But the emptiness must come first. This is why Indian philosophy concentrates on negation, on liberating the mind from concepts of Truth. It proposes no idea, no description, of what is to fill the mind's void because the idea would exclude the fact-somewhat as a picture of the sun on the windowpane would shut out the true sun's light. Vhereas the Hebrews would not permit an image of God in wood or stone, the Hindus will not permit an image of thought-unless it be so obviously mythological as not to be mistaken for the reality.

Therefore the practical discipline ( sadhana ) of the way of liberation is a progressive disentanglement of one's Self ( atman) from every identification. It is to realize that I am not this body, these sensations, these feelings, these thoughts, this consciousness. The basic reality of my life is not any conceivable object.