An article in a recent Commonweal magazine introduces a splendid old-but-new-to-me word: kenosis—Greek for emptying. According to Wikipedia, in a Christian theological context kenosis describes "... the 'self-emptying' of one's own will and becoming entirely receptive to God and his perfect will ..."; in literary æsthetics it's "... the experience of the emptying of the ego-personality of the reader into the immediate sensory manipulation of poetics ...".

Heavy zen. To my simple mind, kenosis resonates with my all-time favorite Russian word: Ничего, transliterated nichevo. Idiomatically, it's an all-purpose response that, said with a shrug, means "It can't be helped!" Literally, nichevo means "nothing". (Hey, that's me!)

(cf. RussianJournal (2003-03-28), NationalCharacters (2005-05-16), Nine Layers of Sky (2008-04-10), ...) - ^z - 2008-09-21

(correlates: VoicedPostalveolarFricative, Nine Layers of Sky, Rules of Engagement, ...)