I. Being is Being Comprehended

1. Can one be without being something ?

Either one is something (a thing is another thing: a lamp is a source of light), or one is something other than something (a thing is the world: a lamp is (in) the world, a light is (in) the world).

Either one is a thing, or one is the world.

Being nothing is still being something (since nothing is something, even if it is only a word, a false concept, or the union between a before-thing, the negative contemporaneous with a thing, and the absence following the thing).

Therefore, being is not one member of a pair such as being and nothingness, being and non-being, being and becoming, being and beings. Being is not opposed as a whole to another thing.

2. Being has no opposite, but it has an opposite sense: comprehending.

Being this or being that is belonging to this or that, being in this or that. We say that this or that ‘comprehends’ that which is this or that.

The sense of ‘being’ is the opposite sense of ‘comprehending’. The sense of ‘comprehending’ is the opposite sense of ‘being’. Being can only be explained through comprehending, and vice versa.

3. Being is being comprehended. Comprehending is being been [être été]. The active sense of one is the passive sense of the other.

4. Being is a sense attributed to the relation between two things or between a thing and that which is not a thing.

5. Being is not primary, which means both that no being is in itself and that no being is before things. Being is secondary and the handmaiden of things, which means that being is the sense attributed to one thing in relation to another thing.