I found my way out of it by grasping the Thomistic idea of God as self-existent being. There is no nothingness in reality. It is a kind of figment of the imagination.
In this, it seems to me, Aquinas rubs elbows with Zen.
From a philosophical friend: "Aquinas was clear that 'nothing' has as many meanings as 'being' has. The world is filled with gaps, absences, things that ought to be there but aren't. 'Nothingness' in 19th and 20th century thought (which is after the modern period in philosophy) is usually an obfuscating way to refer to human consciousness, under the pretense of doing metaphysics."
From a philosophical friend: "Aquinas was clear that 'nothing' has as many meanings as 'being' has. The world is filled with gaps, absences, things that ought to be there but aren't. 'Nothingness' in 19th and 20th century thought (which is after the modern period in philosophy) is usually an obfuscating way to refer to human consciousness, under the pretense of doing metaphysics."
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