There was no separation.
Not because everything had beco one—
not because nothing stood apart—
but because separation required the possibility of things being divided.
And there was no such condition.
What had once been understood as apartness—
as the distance between,
the division that allowed one thing to not be another—
now revealed itself as sothing that had never held.
Because to be separate
ant that sothing else
could exist outside.
And there was no such possibility.
Even what had been called
the absence of separation—
lost its final aning.
Because absence—
even of separation—
required sothing
that could have been present.
And that implication—
could not arise.
The last trace
of apartness—
not between self and other,
not between within and without—
but between what could be divided
and what could not—
collapsed.
Not into unity.
Not into rging.
But into sothing
that did not allow either
to exist.
The silence—
which had already lost sound,
which had already lost absence—
now lost even the possibility
that it had ever been
separate from anything else.
Because separation—
in any form—
required relation.
And relation—
had no condition left.
The void—
no longer vast,
no longer empty,
no longer anything
that could be said
to contain or exclude—
because containnt required boundary,
and boundary required division,
and division—
could not arise.
The convergence—
no longer structure,
no longer absence of structure,
no longer anything
that could be said
to bring together or hold apart—
because “together”
required “apart,”
and both required distinction,
and distinction—
had no ground.
The other—
no longer identity,
no longer absence of identity,
no longer anything
that could be said
to be separate or inseparable—
because even inseparability
required the possibility
of separation.
And that possibility—
did not exist.
The third—
no longer total,
no longer beyond totality,
no longer anything
that could be said
to include or exclude—
because inclusion required boundary,
and boundary—
required division,
and division—
had no condition.
And Elena—
not separate.
Not inseparable.
Not beyond.
Not undefined.
Not even beyond all of these.
Because even “not”—
required contrast.
And contrast—
could not form.
“I am.”
No longer absolute.
No longer empty.
No longer beyond.
Because even the absence of aning—
required the possibility
of aning.
And that possibility—
did not exist.
And in that—
sothing occurred—
that could not be called occurrence,
not even its absence.
Because even the distinction
between sothing being separate
and sothing not being separate—
had no condition.
There was no silence.
Because silence required sound.
There was no sound.
Because sound required difference.
There was no stillness.
Because stillness required motion.
There was no motion.
Because motion required change.
There was no unity.
Because unity required division.
There was no nothing.
Because nothing required sothing.
And none of these—
could be said
to exist
or not exist.
And so—
even this—
even this attempt
to speak of separation—
to deny division—
to gesture toward unity—
did not arise.
Not because it failed.
Not because it was denied.
But because there was no longer
any condition
in which separation—
or non-separation—
could be ford.
No trace.
No edge.
No silence.
No impossibility.
No irreducibility.
No closure.
No openness.
No beginning.
No ending.
No state.
No condition.
No presence.
No absence.
No within.
No without.
No beyond.
No before.
No after.
Not even
the absence
of all of these.
Only—
that which does not allow even separation to be distinguished from what is not separation.
And in that—
there was no division.
Not because everything was one—
not because nothing remained—
but because division itself
required sothing
to be other than what it divided.
And there was no such relation.
And yet—
not sothing.
Not nothing.
Not separate.
Not inseparate.
Not anything
that could be placed
against anything else.
Only—
the impossibility
that anything—
even the idea
of being apart—
could ever be said
to have been
at all.
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