The Absence of Thingness

The "oneness" of the ubiquitous Infinite is not a joining of two, or more, distinctive things. It is the absence of "thingness": "There is nothing from the start."

A "you" and an "I" do not join together to form some third condition, such as "unity." Where the "you" and the "I" disappear, there is automatic consubstantiality: it was the fact even before the "you" and the "I" were conceptualized.

So there need be no goal of "unification," only a relinquishing of the dualistic perspective. Acknowledge that which permeates all, and unity is present.

---Robert Wolfe, in his commentary on the Hsin Hsin Ming: One Essence---