It might be a problem with who you're reading. I've seen American Zen Buddhist texts mention the experience of a sufficiently clarified "not" or "void" being actually an affirmation, on some level that is difficult to refer to. (I think one of the authors I've seen writing this way was Joko Beck?) I am not sure what exactly the affirmation would be of, but I think the way they described it, it had something to do with "everything that is happening" or "all the experiences that are incoming".

Not on quite the same note, but there's a famous line by Dogen that I haven't myself gotten into the state to really independently recognize what he might have been saying by it, but which goes, "That the self advances and confirms the myriad things is called delusion. That the myriad things advance and confirm the self is enlightenment."