Abstract

This meditation is dedicated to those souls who, at the very limit of reason, still thirst. I have conceived something exquisite—an answer to why the world is as it is. The answer itself is remarkably simple; its exposition, however, is so intricate that it cannot fit within the narrow confines of an abstract. This structure of thought is precisely the Innate Science found in the I Ching—its core teaching being that the innate self is the Supreme Polarity (心即太极), in which Principle, Image, and Number (理、象、数) are one and undivided. It encompasses the binary, decimal, duodecimal, and base-sixty systems, along with the 360 degrees, the Pythagorean theorem, square and circle, π, *i*, force, light, and many other essential principles of mathematics, physics, and time-space. To dwell in it is to be set adrift in rapture, bordering on ecstasy. Whoever grasps its content may witness mountains and rivers shattering, the great earth sinking level—and enter that inconceivable state where an instant is eternity, and all things are harmoniously one, without obstruction. The work may appear arrogant and absurd, mystical and irrational. Yet I am utterly sincere, driven by a sense of necessity that I cannot resist. I believe that the starry sky I gazed upon as a child from the fields of my homeland is the very same sky that arches over Oxford. And I hold firmly that all human beings, across ages and civilizations, share the same capacity for questioning heaven (天问), and the same ground for calling back the soul (招魂).