Two sandcastles—one big, one small—on a beach... they are different forms. But when the tide comes in, they are both reduced back to one flat sandy shore. The sandcastles and the shore are made of grains of sand, and a particular grain could constitute part of either sandcastle or the flat beach. One grain of sand is the same as any other. All of the forms emerge simply from sand grains arranged differently. And each grain of sand has the potential to be part of any of those forms, even when is not... currently!
Each thing, in motion or not, is a manifestation of a beyond-thing. Each manifestation contains within it the full potential of that beyond. And beyond is fully present in each thing. Things appear to be substantial and real because our senses perceive only an infinitesimal slice of all, and, in that cage of our limited perceptions, things seem to have an independent existence on their own. When one thing acts upon or with another, our limited interpretations connect the two as cause and effect. They look substantive and separate relative to one another. But they are all the same always, no more than sand grains arranged in different ways. They are like mirages, fleeting manifestations of an ineffable absolute. So a voiced word is equivalent to a tree is equivalent to an exploding star. The things we observe are the same: empty conditional forms without intrinsic substance, projected from an absolute, and yet still each containing within it the whole potential of the absolute.
Sandcastles of all sizes and shapes, all from grains of sand…
— Gabriel Fenteany, April 11, 2016
