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The word "宇宙" means "universe" in modern Japanese. Almost all Japanese researchers understand it in this modern sense. However, as can easily be seen from the characters "宇" and "宙," they form a pair of words with opposite and complementary meanings. The former means space, and the latter means time. This also reflects the philosophy of Tendai duality brought by the monk Ninmon. Baien thought that space and time are twin fields that encompass the entire universe. Space, "宇," gives a place of existence to everything within it, and time, "宙," is the field of change for all things. If there were no field of time, the universe would be only a magnificent panorama. If there were no field of space, the world would consist only of chaotic changes without shape. In either case, we would not be able to recognize the world. In the former case, we would be part of the panorama, and in the latter case, we would disappear into chaos. Baien reached this recognition in the 1770s. However, almost all researchers have failed to understand the duality of time and space. They have mistakenly understood "宇" and "宙" together only as the modern Japanese word "宇宙," meaning "universe." As a result, they have treated two opposite and complementary meanings as if they formed only a single word. The term "没" in the central circle means non-material existence. However, the word "没," meaning "non-material," is located within the material domain. Therefore, this word indicates a non-material domain within the material domain. Consequently, "没" here means space, orbit, past, future, direction, and so on. These are all non-material concepts. In other words, Baien thought that the space-domain itself is a field, and that the time-domain itself is also a field. The space-domain gives each existence its place, and the time-domain gives all things their changes. Since this domain has various attributes, such as trajectory, direction, position, past, present, and future, Baien did not regard it as wholly non-material. There is "緯" on the left side of "没" and "経" on the right side. Baien compares "経" to the warp of cloth and "緯" to its weft. He may also have compared these two words to the flow of a river and its spread toward the shores on both sides. Let us use the metaphor of a river here. Suppose that both banks of the river are infinitely far away. The flow is "経," and both banks are "緯." The infinitely wide spread between the two banks corresponds to space. In this metaphor, the river flow is time, which changes the entire universe, and space is the infinite expanse that embraces all existences. What is important here is that Baien's Holonic Dual-Path System has "経" and "緯" as concepts superior to time and space. Baien had already created a system in which time and space are subordinate concepts in the 1770s. The "時" and "通" in the right circle indicate the character of "宙." In simple terms, "時" is time, and "通" is the flow of time. "處" and "塞" in the circle on the left indicate the character of "宇," meaning space. "處" indicates the place where objects exist. |