THE TENTH MAN : 24




Completion


As long as there is a 'self' there are 'others'; as long as there are 'others' there is a 'self'.

As soon as there is no longer a 'self' there are no longer any 'others'; and as soon as there are no longer any 'others' there is no longer a 'self'.

But 'others' cannot be abolished by a 'self' (or vice versa), nor can a 'self' be abolished by a 'self', because the 'self' to be abolished is then an 'other' to the 'self' that would abolish it.

'Self' and 'others' cannot be abolished - for abolition requires an abolisher. But 'self and others' being interdependent phenomenal counterparts, their complement produces mutual negation, the absence of which represents This-which-we-are.

Note: Just as negative and positive, subject and object, light and shade, so self and other mutually complement one another, thereby producing non-objectivity in which neither is either, and the non-objectivity that can be said to remain represents This-which-we-are.


(© HKU Press, 1966)
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