The Absolute One

2.b. Let us go back to the beginning, and see the consequences that will follow.

If One is not, we ask what will happen in respect of one?

The words ‘is not’ signify an absence of being. When we say that a thing is not, we mean that it has no existence.

Then, that which is not cannot exist.

We said that:

• becoming was the assumption of existence
• being destroyed was the assumption of non-existence

Then one that is non-existing cannot lose or gain existence. It does not perish nor becomes, and is not altered at all.

But if it be not altered then it cannot be moved. It does not stand if it is nowhere; for that which stands must always be in one and the same spot.

Then the one which is not never stands still and never moves.

Nor is there any existing thing which can be attributed to it; for if there had been, it would partake of being?

And therefore neither smallness, nor greatness, nor equality, can be attributed to it?

Nor yet likeness nor difference, either in relation to itself or to others?

Well, and if nothing should be attributed to it, can other things be attributed to it?

And therefore other things can neither be like or unlike, the same, or different in relation to it?

Nor can what is not, be anything, or be this thing, or be related to or the attribute of this or that or other, or be past, present, or future. Nor can knowledge, or opinion, or perception, or expression, or name, or any other thing that is, have any concern with it?

Then the One that is not has no condition of any kind.