I’m trying to find interesting symbols that mean ‘nothing’. Not devoid of meaning; no, i want symbols that represent nothing. Null, zip, zilch. Not zero, which is a numeric value; but the concept of nothing. It’s hard to google for ‘nothing’ though. Anyone know of any such symbols? I keep thinking Buddhist traditions must have […]
I’m trying to find interesting symbols that mean ‘nothing’.
Not devoid of meaning; no, i want symbols that represent nothing.
Null, zip, zilch. Not zero, which is a numeric value; but the concept of nothing.
It’s hard to google for ‘nothing’ though.
Anyone know of any such symbols? I keep thinking Buddhist traditions must have some powerful symbols for it; i just can’t seem to lay hands on them.
…and yes, I am working on a tattoo concept. Because when am I not?
One thing that comes to mind is the math symbol for the “empty set” or “null set”. You can see it at: http://www.decodeunicode.org/w3.php?nodeId=8811&page=1&=2&zoom=&=
Maybe one of the other mathematical symbols will have some meaning: http://www.decodeunicode.org/w3.php?ucHex=2200. Lots of interesting ones there; “for all” “there does not exist” “not an element of” “does not contain as a member”
Though I’m sure it’s not news to you: http://www.tattoosymbol.com/kanji/kanji-nothingness.html.
Related, but not en point: http://www.fmbr.org/cosmiclaw/1nothingness.htm
I hope this shows up:
無
“mu”, in Japanese
Ooh. Cool. Yes, it does show up, at least on my OSX browsers.
So would that mean ‘nothing’ in the same sense we’d use in english? Or is it some other concept (empty, gone, etc).
Mu as a zen concept is sort of kind of like “nothing,” yeah. Wiki has a pretty good entry on it here — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_%28negative%29
Gregg (just wrote an essay on Mu, but not the Japaneses/zen one…)
Hofstadter goes on at length about “mu” in Goedel Escher Bach.
“Mu” pretty much means “nothing” or “nothingness.” And yeah, it is used in Buddhism.
You can also put it in front of another word to negate it. There are all sorts of mundane examples, but my personal favorite is 無縁仏 (muenbotoke), or “wandering ghost.” It’s a person with no relatives to take care of their remains or grave after death, and so wanders about.
What about that horizontal figure 8 symbol for infinity?
I’m sure there’s a name for it, but hey, I ain’t that deep. Well, maybe on some levels.;)
Anyway, when I think of infinity as in relation to space and the universe, I visualize “nothing”.
I’m curious as to why you want to incorprate “nothing” into a tattoo.
um. I think ‘infinity’ would be the opposite of ‘nothing’. But maybe that’s just me.
Hiromi, i love the ‘muenbotoke’ thing. That rules.
I need to get tattooed. Right now. I’m lucky I don’t have a machine or I’d have some REALLY bad marks on my hands (though not as bad as Jeffrey’s neck tattoo on project runway – shudder.
Hmmm….given this post, perhaps you should just get tatted with the m’sphere logo??
Just a thought. 😉
Say that again Brandon laddie, and I’ll be kickin’ yer furry brown Bahookie!
Oi!