Written by Pema Vajra
People like answers. Solid ones. Sharp corners. Labels you can slap on reality and call it a day. This is not one of those pieces.This is about Is—and why it shows up in two very different ways.Not as a belief. Not as a philosophy to defend. Just a clear look at what’s already happening.
Two Categories of “Is”
There are two categories of Is:
- Relative Is
- The Absence of Is (Absolute Is)
They are not opposed. They are not in conflict. One dances. One doesn’t move.Let’s start where most of us live.
A. Relative “Is” — The World That Appears
Relative Is includes every way consciousness interacts with itself as a world.
- Smelling
- Tasting
- Feeling
- Seeing
- Hearing
- Thinking
Every sensation. Every perception. Every emotion. Every thought loop that pretends to be you. All of it Is. This includes how we consume the world—food, ideas, images, stories—and how we try to separate ourselves from it through ignorance, denial, resistance, and spiritual cosplay. Even separation Is. Relative Is is the totality of interdependent conditions required for this moment to appear at all. Nothing stands alone. Nothing is exempt. Our attempts to know reality—conceptually, intellectually, spiritually—are part of this category. And yes, those attempts are a kind of blindness.But so is clarity. Because even awareness itself, as an experience, belongs to Relative Is. Everything that can be perceived—no matter how refined, enlightened, or confused—simply Is as Is is. Nothing extra. Relative Is is impermanent. It’s movement. It’s a dance. Constantly:
- balancing
- harmonizing
- correcting
- equalizing
No frame holds. No insight stays final. No state survives untouched. And that’s not a problem. That’s the point.
B. The Absence of “Is” — The Source That Never Appears
Then there is the second category. The Absence of Is. This is the source of everything that appears as Relative Is. We give it names:
- God
- Buddha
- Allah
- Tao
- Source
But those names belong to the first category. Labels are appearances. Concepts are appearances. The Absence of Is cannot be known as a thing. It cannot be perceived. It cannot be located. It cannot be experienced. It can only be known as Is—and even that word fails. Why? Because whatever seeks it Is it. That which looks for the source is made of the source. The seeker is not separate from what is sought. So the Absence of Is is unfindable—not because it is hidden, but because it is never missing.It does not move. It does not change. It does not appear. And yet, without it, nothing could.
No Conclusion Needed
Relative Is dances. The Absence of Is does not. One appears as everything. The other never appears at all. Trying to hold either is unnecessary. Seeing this—not as an idea, but as lived reality—is enough. No improvement required. No final understanding achieved. Just this. Just Is As Is is.