Chapter Two: The First Difference

In the most common classical formulation of the contemporary “First Difference” model, before all beginnings there was no universe, no space, no time, no matter, no energy, and no life. Even the concepts of “existence” and “nonexistence” had yet to be born, for concepts themselves are a form of difference. This primordial state cannot be observed directly by later ages; the account that follows is the language of a model, not an eyewitness record of the primordial era. Countless later civilizations attempted to name it: the Primordial, the One, the Great Unity, the Source, the Zero State, the Formless, the First Silence. Every name is merely the understanding of those who came afterward.

Absolute Unity In that era, there were no distinctions whatsoever: no inside or outside, near or far, above or below, fast or slow; no past or future, life or death, light or darkness; and still less opposition or change. Change requires difference, and there was no difference there. Philosophers of later ages called this state absolute unity.

The First Fissure Then, at a certain moment—or rather, in an instant that cannot be called a “moment”—the First Difference appeared within absolute unity. No one knows why. Perhaps there was no reason at all, since causality itself arose only afterward. That difference was infinitesimal, too small for any civilization of later ages to measure, yet it changed everything. From that moment onward, unity was no longer complete.