Beautiful Void

A documentary essay on the eternal question: Where do we all come from? Several very different characters — from today’s leading physicists to acclaimed minimalist music composers — each reach a strikingly similar answer: in essence, the universe is radiant empty space, constantly exploding into existence. What was once seen as an exotic theory is now becoming increasingly obvious through the latest experiments conducted at the main pillar of today’s discoveries in physics, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Carlo Rovelli, a pioneering quantum physicist, redefines the way we see the world: even we humans are, in fact, whirlpools of energy moving in space. If we break down the reality to a subatomic level, we find nothing solid — the particles are actually not there. Rovelli recently had a mind-blowing discovery by reading a book by Nagarjuna, an ancient Indian philosopher. It turns out Nagarjuna, using his intuition, brought about a strikingly similar description of the world. How did he, almost two thousand years ago, realize that the physical world is essentially empty without even having a microscope? Robert Thurman, the famous professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies, takes us on a journey into Nagarjuna’s unique philosophy which not only explains what the emptiness means, but also how we can find freedom in discovering that our essence is limitless space with no beginning and no end. But, how exactly could we apply this new picture of the world in our lives? Laurie Anderson, the renowned avantgarde musician and artist, strives to reach an 'empty state of mind' believing it to be the source of creativity. She even uses particular meditation techniques aimed at identifying with luminous empty space. It appears that it not only makes us more creative, but also helps us to overcome our basic fears and expectations. We can start enjoying being here and now.