Franklin Merrell Wolff:Commentary on Aphorism 2 Con.w/oObject

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2.Before objects were, Consciousness-without-an-objectis.

 

This aphorism emphasizes the priority of Consciousness to content.

But this is not a priority in time in the sense that a causal

antecedent precedes a consequent. Primordial Consciousness is no more

a cause of objects, in the temporal sense, than is space a cause of

the stellar systems. But without space there could be no stellar

systems, and likewise, there could be no objects without the support

of Consciousness. Hence Conscious-ness-without-an-object is, not in

the sense of a present that is a mere point in the flow of the future

into the past, but in the sense of an Eternal Now. This " isness " is a

denial of time. Consciousness-without-an-object is not a cause that

determines any particularization, but it is the Causeless-Cause

whereby all particularization is possible.

Here " Objects " must be understood in that most general sense of any

modification of consciousness whatsoever. It is not only objects as

seen or thought, but, as well, any feeling-toned state of

consciousness. For, a feeling-toned state, being recognizable as

such, is, therefore, a content or object.

We cannot conceive of a first object, since before that object there

must be its causal antecedent. The stream of objects is a stream

reaching from nowhere in the past to nowhere in the future. There is

no substance in this time-stream, and hence an eon of eons is

precisely the same as the smallest division of time, just as a finite

section in a line is as rich in points as the infinite totality of

the line. The drama of time is played in the Sea of Consciousness,

and yet it is as though nothing at all had happened.

 

posted April 3, 2006.........bob