[Commentary on Shinji Shobogenzo, Book 2, Case 62]
Some people say that everything is one, but if that is so, how do we explain the obvious differentiation that we see?
If we say everything is one, the temptation is to think that there is a true world standing behind this world, which we need to get to. And so, we reconstitute the ego, this time as a battering ram.
Or, we take the familiar metaphor of clouds and sky, and imagine that the sky is somehow behind the clouds, that the clouds are an obstruction. But where does the sky begin, or end?
Our practice is not the eradication of anything. It is not breaking down the door of an empty house. It is the actualisation of space.
In vast space, each thing can have its own place.