While we are in the process of discovering who we really are—as opposed to who we think we are—we perceive differences between ourselves and others, and no-one can deny that differences do exist—differences in race, nationality, culture, language and so on. Often, however, we pay too much attention to these differences.

     There are two kinds of Truth: Conventional, and Ultimate. To communicate, we must use terms like ‘people’, ‘houses’, ‘cars’, ‘food’, ‘you’, ‘I’, etc., but they are true only on the conventional level; ultimately, there are no such things as ‘people’, ‘houses’, ‘cars’, etc. How come? Well, take a book, for example: What is a book? Was it always such, and will it always be so? It is a composition of things that are also compositions: paper, ink, glue, color. Not long ago, it was not a book, and before long, it will become something else. It has an identity as a book only in context, which changes; ultimately, there is no book. Seen in this manner, the book disappears before our eyes, even while we are holding it, and in fact, we disappear, too!

     We do not see this clearly, however, and so we cling onto our ideas about differences. This is something common, regardless of race, religion, nationality, and so on, and in this way, there is little difference between us.

The one who
knows
is different from
the one
who knows not
because of
what he knows.
And what does
he know?
He knows that
between
the one who knows
and
the one who knows not,
there is no difference!