ALL ELSE IS BONDAGE : VI




This Phenomenal Absence



Nowhere, where I am an object, am I; nor where any part of 'me' is an object is it part of me or is mine. Only here where I can see nothing (but the objective universe) am I - and I am only an absence objectively.
When I realise that, I cease also to be an individual 'I', for anything individual is thereby an object.

My objective absence is the presence of pure non-objectivity, which is just that.
My only existence is non objective, as non-objectivity itself.

I cannot be portrayed in any way, drawn, photographed or described. That which impersonally I am has no qualities or resemblance to an individual subject-object, which is purely conceptual.

Note: A 'self', an 'ego', any kind of separated personality or being, is an object. That is why nothing of the kind is - as the Diamond Sutra so repeatedly insists.

My objective self only has a conceptual existence.
Non-objectively I am the apparent universe.
Identifying myself with my conceptual object is what constitutes bondage. Realising that my conceptual object only exists in so far as it and its subject are T H I S phenomenal absence here and now - constitutes liberation.

I am my phenomenal absence.



(©HKU Press, 1964)
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