The Void Within is a domain (www.thevoidwithin.com), a website, and a blog. Specifically, it's the name of my blog about my personal experiences as I attempt to explore my own spirituality.

It includes public articles discussing ideas and experiences I have, and a private journal with shorter more frequent entries about my day to day practice.

My daily practice is recorded in the journal entries, which in turn inspire the longer public articles.

That's pretty simple, but it probably wasn't the answer you were expecting.

The Void Within makes a short, catchy site name (well, I think so) but what does it mean, if anything? I chose it because I think it sums up the general direction of this blog, looking inwards and exploring what we find there, and hopefully understanding it a bit better as a result.

One of the various meanings of "void" is an unknown or something missing, and in this sense it describes a void of knowledge. Knowledge of our spirituality is what's missing.

Our culture seems to prefer to focus on the mind and body, but neglects the spiritual. Perhaps after centuries of God equalling spirituality, now that atheism is the fashion, spirituality has fallen out of favour.

I don't advocate religion over spirituality, or vice versa, (and are they really mutually exclusive anyway?) but believe that to be a rounded individual you must develop all aspects of yourself: mind, body, and soul.

The void within also describes our lack of knowledge about our spirituality, but even if we lack knowledge, we all have a spirit of some kind: something that exists between flesh and blood, hormones and neurons, something that gives us the vital spark of life and links our mind and body.

This is why if people sometimes speak of a spiritual void in their lives, I interpret it as meaning they haven't discovered their own spirituality, or have become distant from it. They are unable to recognise their own spiritual nature, and thus they feel empty inside.

"Void" is a word sometimes used to describe space. Space may seem at first glance totally empty, but is actually full of particles, radiation, and other things floating around. It takes some special equipment to look into the void and begin to understand what you find there.

In science, special equipment may mean telescopes and sensors, but in spirituality, my special equipment is meditation and reflection.

Like space, the further you look into the void within, the further you find you can go. Space is boundless, and I believe that our spirituality is also boundless. If you have the dedication, you can keep on exploring deeper and more subtle aspects of spirituality.

So, in answer to the original question, the void within is our own boundless and hidden spiritual nature. Like space, it is endless and seemingly empty, and we can spend lifetimes exploring its mysteries, but even though we may start knowing nothing, given time we can probe and gain a better understanding of its mysteries.