If ever we accede to enlightenment,

He thought, it is in one compassionate moment

When what separated them from me vanishes

And a shower of drops from a bunch of lilacs

Pours on my face, and hers, and his, at the same time.

– Czesław Miłosz, from City of My Youth

The question, of course, is how to reach that compassionate moment where such unity is possible. It can’t come through self-absorption or even self-immolation. If the individuals follow their own interest, the whole is shattered. If they destroy themselves, the whole is shattered again, because it was made of individual blocks. The true answer is elegant, and extraordinarily complex: transcendent unity comes through intelligent, joyful submission. There is paradoxical beauty in something which is whole, but made of discrete, seemingly incongruous parts which all grow at different speeds in odd directions, like crystal, and form patterns and follow purposes beyond the understanding of each piece.