Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

by Charles Seife

In one story, Death tells a disciple about the soul: “Concealed in the heart of all beings is the Atman, the Spirit, the Self,” he says. “Smaller than the smallest atom, greater than the vast spaces.” This Atman, which resides in every thing, is part of the essence of the universe, and is immortal. When a person dies, the Atman is released from the body and soon enters another being; the soul transmigrates and the person is reincarnated. The goal of the Hindu is to free the Atman entirely from the cycle of rebirth, to stop wandering from death to death. The way to achieve the ultimate liberation through lifelessness is to cease paying heed to the illusion of reality. “The body, the house of the spirit, is under the power of pleasure and pain,” explains a god. “And if a man is ruled by his body then this man can never be free.” But once you are able to separate yourself from the whims of the flesh and embrace the silence and nothingness of your soul, you will be liberated. Your Atman will fly from the web of human desire and join the collective consciousness—the infinite soul that suffuses the universe, at once everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It is infinity, and it is nothing.