13 June 2012

Principium III: Nihil procedit ex Omnia


Nothing proceeds out of the Whole.

Just as nothing enters the Whole ‘from the outside’ (because there is no ‘inside’ or ‘outside’), nor does anything depart from the Whole.  

Again, it must be remembered that while the Whole can be spoken of as if it were a reified existent, this is nothing more than a necessary fiction in order to speak of the Whole at all.  But in actuality the Whole encompasses each and every existent (spatially and temporally)—the Whole of existence itself is what makes the reification of any extent a possibility. 

Reification always implies something other than the reified object in question—but regarding the Whole, there is no other-than-the-Whole.  The Whole does not possess a metaphysical boundary over which any existent could possibly cross, to be brought into existence or to go out of existence.

The Whole is comprised of forms, just as a wave is formed from an ocean.  Through reification, one may distinguish one wave from the ocean as a whole; one may also distinguish one wave from another wave; and one may trace the rise and fall of a particular wave. 

A wave is never actually separate from the ocean as a whole—nor is any wave separate from any other wave that rises and falls within the ocean. 

Just as a wave is not created from nothing, but is formed out of the whole of the ocean, so also a wave is not annihilated into nothing, but rather is subsumed by the ocean, out of which more waves are formed again and again ad infinitum.

The Whole is not comprised of objects created out of nothing, but of forms—each existent is formed from the Whole, giving the Whole its unique ‘texture’ in the present moment. 

At root, no form is ever separate from another form.  All form thrives within a mutual interplay of flux: each form affects all other forms and each form is affected by all other forms, just as a wave cannot fluctuate in any particular way that does not dynamically affect the rest of the surrounding ocean. 

It is in this respect that prepositional language breaks down not only for the Whole itself, but also in relation to those forms which comprise the Whole. 

If the Whole has no temporal boundary that one may refer to as ‘before,’ then by the same token, form does not have a point that can be referred to as ‘before’ except nominally, by positing a reified existent.  And if the Whole has no temporal boundary that one may refer to as ‘after,’ then it too can only be understood nominally. 

Just as the Whole has no outside or prior source of origin, neither then does form.  And just as the Whole has no ‘place’ to which to depart, likewise form is not annihilated (this relation between form and the Whole will be investigated much later).

The Whole (not having an ‘outside’ or a prior) is not created out of anything other-than-the-Whole; the Whole is also not annihilated into anything other-than-the-Whole.  Therefore the same can be said of anything of the Whole—which is to say all things, i.e. forms. 

Nominally speaking, a form may come into being and may be destroyed, but this coming-into-being and destruction is in actuality the combination and dispersion of certain unique elements arising from the Whole.  But from the perspective of the Whole (i.e. the recognition that reification is not an absolute truth), there is an ontological seamlessness between all forms as they arise and subside. 

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