THE TENTH MAN : 30




Inbeing


Noumenality is present wherever and whenever phenomenality is present, for neither can ever have independent existence.

Every phenomenon, at every moment, is then noumenon and is thereby a centre, the centre of an infinity and an eternity of which, since they are by definition without limit, the centre must necessarily be everywhere and always.

That is the only sense in which any phenomenon can say I, and in that limited sense every sentient phenomenon is necessarily I in every act of sentience, wherever and whenever such an act may occur.

Every sentient appearance can say I, therefore, although itself can never be I as an appearance. Consequently noumenally it is I which perform such act wherever and whenever it may be performed and by whatever sentient phenomenon such act may appear to be performed. But neither the (objective) performer of the act nor the (objective) act itself can ever be I, since they are only a phenomenal duality.

That is not easy to say; perhaps it may not be easy to understand, but the inseeing of it is seeing into what we are.

Inseeing, however, is not enough, though its expression reaches the limit of the function of words, for words, being subject to duality, cannot transform inseeing into inbeing - which is disidentification.


(© HKU Press, 1966)
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