1" I AM TOTAL absence of sentience, so that sentience may be.
I am the absence of whatever may appear to be, and whatever may appear,
I am its absence,and what it is.
I am absence of presence, so that presence may be.
2. That is why I am everything, and how I am every-thing, because without my absence
nothing whatever could appear.
I am unmanifest, so that manifestation may be manifested. Manifestation is entirely my nonmanifestation.
3. Functioning is my non-functioning, just as prajnā is dhyāna, and my non-functioning is
functioning, just as dhyāna is prajnā.
What-I-am-not is what everything is, and everything is what-I-am-not. Therefore we are not
separate.
4. This is how I am not, and why everything appears. It is also why I cannot find myself,
or know myself, for I am my absence; it is my own absence That I Am.
5. Looking for me, looking for looking, is finding my absence.
The sought is the seeker, what is seen is the see-er, because the sought is the absence of
the presence of the seeker, and the seen is the presence of the absence of the see-er.
6. This is all that can be said or known, for what is objective is the presence of the
absence of subject, presence the presence of the absence of objectivity, and positive is the
presence of the absence of negativity—for such is That I Am.
This is why I am everything and yet am no thing, why everything neither is nor is not, and why
all that we are is I"
