““Eastern spiritual sciences always use negative terminology. This minimizes the imagination. If we use positive terminology, too much imagination will happen. If you say “God,” people will start imagining all kinds of gods. If you say “Kingdom of God,” they will start imagining all kinds of fancy things in their heads. So the Eastern spiritual processes always use negative terminology. Now we say “shoonya,” or emptiness. Not much room left for the imagination, is there? (Laughs) So Gautama, the Buddha, said “nirvana.” Nirvana means non-existence. He is also talking about emptiness in a different way.””
