'Well, what is it?' said the owl.
'I want to ask you something,' the rabbit replied, ruminatively.'I know,' said the owl.
'I thought you would,' the rabbit answered, scratching her ear with her left paw. 'Why are we friends?''Because, of course, relatively speaking, we are aspects of one another,' the owl explained.
'So that is it?' mused the rabbit. 'So different - and yet mutual aspects of something!''Nonsense!' the owl screeched, swivelling his head and turning his great eyes towards her. 'Mutual aspects of no thing.'
'Is there really any difference?' asked the rabbit; 'I mean between "some thing" and "no thing"?''Of course not,' answered the owl, 'If you understand that.'
'Because what I am - you are, and what you are - I am?' queried the rabbit.'Quite so,' the owl remarked, 'but, if you know that, why say it?'
'I know it a little,' said the rabbit, humbly, 'but I am never sure if I really do!''You necessarily know it,' the owl corrected, 'but you are so conditioned that you can hardly believe what you know. Why do you ask?'
'I picked a particularly luscious thistle just now, and I found myself saying "but you are what I am"!''And wasn't he?'
'Yes, but it took away my appetite!''Conditioning! Conditioning!!' hooted the owl; 'He is what you are as I, not as "me"!'
'What is the difference?' inquired the rabbit, puzzled.'All and none,' explained the owl; '"difference" appears relatively - absolutely there cannot even be appearance.'
'But relatively...?''Relatively, for instance, your offsprings are an aspect of "you" as "me", as well as being what you are as I, but absolutely there can be no difference whatever.'
'So I should have eaten the succulent thistle?''Sentiment, sentiment!' complained the owl. 'If you live relatively and also sentimentally you should not eat anything, for everything by which you profit injures an aspect of what you are.'
'But if I live absolutely?' asked the rabbit.'Eat all your friends and relatives, but begin by eating yourself! Whatever difference could there be absolutely?'
'But life would be a shambles!' complained the rabbit.'Well, what else is it, anyhow?' asked the owl, hooting and rehooting to his own echo.
'But it can be much better...' said the rabbit hesitantly.'Yes, of course it can,' answered the owl, 'has often been, sometimes still is - just a little - and may be again at any time. But then it will be a result of direct apprehending and not of any relative method of attainment.'
'Seems difficult to live like that,' complained the rabbit.'Don't live like anything,' insisted the owl; 'let yourself be lived: you will, you must, anyhow!'
'Even that seems difficult to me!' said the rabbit.'Difficult? Nonsense!' said the owl. 'If you apperceive that all things are aspects of what you are as I, they will all be what-you-are, and if you perceive that some things are aspects of what you are as "me" you will regard them relatively as aspects of "yourself", that is affectively. If other "you"s do likewise conflict will be replaced by equanimity.'
'But they may dispute my personal needs?''If they too have understood - they will not,' said the owl; 'they will be at your disposal - as I am.'
'Which is what we mean by being "friends"?''Precisely,' concluded the owl, 'that is the answer to your question asking why we are friends.'
'But will other "me"s perceive that they are aspects of what I am as "me"?' asked the rabbit.'I told you yesterday "When I apperceive - "you" perceive, for I, alone, AM",' replied the owl.
'And it is I who must apperceive?' the rabbit queried.'Only I can ever apperceive,' said the owl severely.
'So that I am I?' said the rabbit, both ears aloft.'Of course, of course,' replied the owl, 'what else could "you" possibly be but I?'
