– updated September 2026
Speed, not calm, sparks a take-off into the empty breath. In its bliss of nothing, you see experiences of something arise from emptiness.
When we listen to music, our computer sends it to our speakers via AirPlay. The sound travels through the air for about a second before reaching the speakers. Yet there’s no magical music land on our computer – only a series of soundless zeros and ones.
A software application, another set of zeros and ones, mechanically converts the soundless digital data into something our speakers can transmit. The speakers then produce vibrations that we interpret as music.
Similarly, the brain turns nothing into an experience of something in just one second, giving us the sense of being someone in a substantial world outside us.
From Duality Hack #9.2 in the free eBook Alexius’ Duality Hacks.
The empty breath is one second away
According to science, the universe is a vast expanse of empty space. Yet our brains continually twist this void into experiences of something, making it feel as if we’re tangible beings in a substantial realm outside ourselves.
Twisting nothing into an experience of something, whether perceived as material or spiritual, takes the brain one second to build. So, if you mentally rewind by a second, you land in the nothingness the brain has twisted into your present experience of being someone reading this – a mirage conjured by the brain. Consequently, the empty breath, being nothing, is only a second away.
As Oneness is formless, it’s endless. Hence, since the experience of something requires more than one, all experiences are nothing – including the experience of the empty breath. In the presence of the empty breath, however, the experience of something becomes less important. Thus, eventually, nothing seems to obscure the formlessness of Oneness.
How do you connect with the empty breath?
Here’s the simple answer: Don’t numb or control your thoughts and feelings with meditation or other distractions. Instead, step into the uncontrolled speed of thoughts and feelings, such as anger, fear, and enthusiasm. Their unleashed energy sparks a take-off into the empty breath. Because the brain hasn’t processed the empty breath. Unprocessed by the brain, it resides in nothing. Thus, it brings you the tranquillity of a state of not-knowing.
Put simply, although unaltered speed connects us with the empty breath, the connection feels effortless and serene. Think of an aeroplane: speed triggers take-off, but once the plane is in the air, the experience is not speed but relaxed, steady floating in nothingness.
When it comes to speed, we’re all racing through space. As mentioned on page 286, the Earth spins on its axis at 1000 miles an hour while hurtling around the Sun at 67,000 miles an hour. Yet most people cling to the illusion of slowness, suppressing anything that disturbs it. By denying our speed, we keep ourselves from using it to take off into the empty breath. That’s why Duality Hack #9 is mainly about using our suppressed energy as a take-off into the empty breath.
Desperation sparks a take-off into the empty breath
When shared with like-minded people, selected thoughts, arranged into spiritual or mundane vocabulary, establish us as someone definitive, rather than a random fantasy of the brain. Fortunately, if we feel imprisoned by this terminology, we can use that trapped energy to spark a take-off into the empty breath.
In its emptiness, we still appear as someone in a make-believe world. Yet with the empty breath, we are not pinned down by labels or meanings. So when we return from its state of not-knowing to the conscious experience of being someone in a world confined by time and space, we remain free from predefined interpretation (Duality Hack #9.10).
Thus, we do not believe we are there – instead, we pretend it. This does not mean neglecting the body while playing a role in the brain’s fantasy. Just as you care for a car, though you are not it, you still care for your body and seek medical aid if needed.
If all this talk of the empty breath feels confusing, do not struggle to make sense of it. Enter the raw energy of confusion to spark a take-off into the empty breath. Or dive further into Duality Hack #9. However, you will never know how to connect with the empty breath while believing you are someone definite. Luckily, your belief comes from what you have learned. So if you forget what you know, you no longer seem definite and can connect naturally with the empty breath.
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