Xian / Manifestation Xiǎn · Xian / Manifestation

How did this tiny ridge come to be? It is becoming, dividing out you and the world, dividing out this hand and that hand, dividing out this ridge and that ridge, all the way down, appearing into this one fine line. Follow it backward: this ridge was made to appear by momentum; the momentum was born of countless betweens in your body; those betweens were stretched open by countless divisions; and all those divisions are the same becoming dividing. Which is to say: inside this tiny ridge is hidden the whole line from becoming to appearance. The whole of becoming—the whole line of becoming, division, between, momentum, appearance—is all in this one ridge.

Now look at the abnormal. There is a kind of thing that also appears as some shape—sometimes even more like the real thing than the real thing—yet inside it there is no becoming of its own. Its shape did not grow out of its own inside; it was stuck on from outside, installed, pieced together for an external purpose. It has no root—only a skin of appearance. This is appearance without becoming.