Nothing and Neither P no p' · Space · Consciousness

This term collapses three distinct but cognate aversions—Nothing (Nākiñcaññāyatana), Neither Perception-nor-Non-Perception (Nevasaññānāsaññāyatana), Space (Ākāsānañcāyatana), and Consciousness (Viññāṇañcāyatana)—into a single glyph at the root of the Forty Buddhist Meditations. In the Pali tradition these are the four arūpa jhānas or formless absorptions, each a progressive letting-go of material and mental supports until the meditator abides in a state that can only be named by negation.

The key word is “āyatana” (sphere or base): each is a ‘base of unbounded’—unbounded space, unbounded consciousness, nothingness, and finally neither-perception-nor-non-perception. The compound title “Nothing and Neither P no p'” is a compressed notation from the Thelemic redaction of Liber 777, where the ‘P’ and ‘p'’ stand for the Pali terms for perception (saññā).

Position on the Tree of Life

This entry occupies scale‑step 0, the absolute zero from which the Forty Meditations unfold. In the Qabalistic schema of Liber 777, step 0 is not a Sephirah but the unmanifest source before Keter. It corresponds to the ‘Three Zeros’ of the Sepher Yetzirah—Ain, Ain Soph, Ain Soph Aur—and signals a state prior to any positive attribute.

All four formless spheres are listed in a single cell because, in the structural logic of the table, they form a single continuum: the first (Space) is the first immaterial object of meditation, and the last (Neither‑Perception‑nor‑Non‑Perception) is the subtlest possible object before cessation. Together they represent the entire set of arūpa meditations, not any one of them in isolation.

Historical Context

The four formless spheres are a standard component of the Pali suttas, where the Buddha describes them as successive attainments accessible to both renunciates and ascetics of other traditions. In the Mahā Mālunkyaputta Sutta (MN 64) and the Āneñja-sappāya Sutta (MN 106), they are presented as a graduated path to non‑attachment—each stage dissolves the previous object of awareness until only the barest intentional residue remains.

Theravāda Abhidhamma classifies them as rūpa‑vacara (form‑sphere) and arūpa‑vacara (formless‑sphere) states, and they are systematically enumerated in the Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga) as the last four of the forty kammaṭṭhāna (meditation subjects). The meditator is instructed to abandon the kasiṇa (visual object) that supported the lower jhānas and extend the mind to infinite space, then infinite consciousness, then nothingness, and finally to the fourth formless attainment that is so subtle it can only be described as ‘neither perception nor non‑perception’.

In Liber 777, this entry is set opposite 1. Keter: Indifference S—the highest Sephirah in positive manifestation—and it is labeled with the triad “Nothing and Neither P no p' · Space · Consciousness”. The inclusion of all four arūpa bases in one cell reflects the Thelemic adaptation of the Buddhist lists: the table’s compiler, Aleister Crowley, collapsed the four into a single symbol of the ultimate formlessness, a state that precedes even the first Sephirah.

Position in the Table

At scale‑step 0 of column The Forty Buddhist Meditations, the entry reads “Nothing and Neither P no p' · Space · Consciousness”. It is the sole occupant of that step, standing apart from the subsequent steps (which list the kasiṇa‑colours, the ten asubha corpses, the recollections, and the brahma‑vihāras). In the context of the table, this cell represents the complete set of formless attainments—the four highest meditative spheres—treated as a single object, appropriate to the zero‑point of the scale from which all differentiated meditations emerge.