Space = Me (or you)

Space does not exist but in the context of the mind.

When asked to describe what space is, many have trouble describing, in words, what their understanding of space is. It is easily conjured by the imagination, yet difficult to verbalize. Most commonly agreed upon definitions of space all deal with dimensions of one sort or another, be they time or distance. These dimensions can be singular or multiple, linear or volumetric. Space is both a problem of esoteric proportion and rudimentary physicality. To discover the true meaning of space, one may best seek answers in the shade of a mighty tree, atop a craggy precipice or at the shore of a tranquil mountain pond. Utterance of an answer to a question so simply profound as, “what is the meaning of space?”, ought to bring even the most clever student a smack in the back of the head.

Questions in league with that of the concept of space are easily found in childhood riddles. For example, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Of course, one could argue that, in fact, it does make a sound, and a thunderous one at that! Still, how is one able to prove such a conclusion? Experience would lead one to assume that the falling tree makes a noise. It’s this same feature that allows an individual to understand space. If all the senses are blotted out, does the space about us still exist? Experience would lead us to believe that once the senses are restored we would find that the spaces about us still exist.

Still, this does not pin down what the meaning of space is. Its tangibility, olfactory or auditory features do not describe its state. These sensory stimuli contribute to the construct of space but the location for the assembly of these stimuli, along with associated memories of said stimuli, is in the mind. Aspects of spaces, when filtered through memories, can help ascribe meaning to space and foster comprehension of that space. Linguistic cues, of all manner of form – sounds, sights, smells… especially smells – trigger emotive responses and rememberances that lead us to assume the meaning of a particular space. Through evolution and the course of living our own lives, spatial meanings are programmed to assist in survival functions. Conjuring the meaning of space is inseparable from the core functions of the human organism.

The true meanings of space will differ from person to person, perhaps minutely, and from culture to culture, possibly greatly. Change one of the seemingly endless aspects of space and there too goes its meaning. Space is a state of mind – a forum for the imagination to posit objects, a laboratory to test theories, even a place to call home. It is eveything and nothing, everywhere and nowhere, all at once, for ever and ever.

“In the space which thought creates around itself there is no love. This space divides man from man, and in it is all the becoming, the battle of life, the agnoy and fear. Meditation is the ending of this space, the ending of the me.” – Krishnamurti