Book cover image (left) is from hardcover dust jacket. Explanations below are from original edition.

“This is the true symbol of existence as taught
by our great Teacher of Righteousness.”

    At the ancient Qumran monastery overlooking the Dead Sea, the spiritual leader, called the Guardian, took a piece of limestone from the pocket of his robe. He stooped to draw a hexagram^* on the wooden floor of the watchtower. First, he drew a triangle with three equal sides. On top of it, he drew a second triangle pointing in the opposite direction.
    “This is the true symbol of existence as taught to us by our great Teacher of Righteousness. But its meaning is not apparent as you see it here. To get the meaning, you must separate the triangles, one from the other, and place them side by side.”

    The Guardian drew the two opposing triangles side by side. “Two opposite worlds always in balance with each other and within themselves. No one crosses from one to the other. God decided at the beginning of time who is in each world.”
    Jesus said, “Then God is unjust.”
    “Not at all. Look again. One world begins scattered and ends gathered. The other is opposite. Balance is divine justice.”
    The light dawned and Jesus said, “The last shall be first, and the first last.”

    “Everything is divided into two worlds, as my friend John Clay says. Instead of merging, those worlds cancel out so that everything and nothing are the same.”
    “Two worlds? What is this, Poetry 101?” said Villa. Nelson Ulundi smiled. “Eladio has a point, Mr. Genet. If you’re talking about good and evil, those are hardly scientific concepts.”
    “No, I’m thinking of something neutral—neither good nor evil—but simply equal and opposite, like the opposing triangles of the hexagram.
    Don Brown leaped to the blackboard. “Here you go. Take a triangle pointing up. Add a triangle pointing down. Cancel them, and presto! Everything equals nothing.

    Best of all, Mr. Genet’s theory of everything meets our most demanding criteria—it fits on a T-shirt.” The distinguished fellows applauded Brown as he took a deep bow.

    A funeral mass was in progress. The priest was giving the homily from the pulpit. I took a seat on the end of a pew midway down the center aisle.
    The priest said, “In Matthew 12:30 and Luke 11:23, Jesus says, ‘The person who does not gather with me scatters.’ Who, then, can enter the Kingdom of God? Only those who gather with Jesus.”

Donnée—the “given” from which an entire fiction grows. Second Coming’s donnée is a literal interpretation of: “The person who does not gather with me scatters,” Matthew 12:30. A literal interpretation of the verse generates a universe beyond your wildest imagination.

* In the novel, the balancing within Many (individual objects with unique identities) is due to “gathering” and “scattering,” and is symbolized by the opposing equal triangles of the hexagram (see above illustration). The choice of hexagram or Chinese Taoist yin-yang symbol (below) is personal preference only because topologically and philosophically they are the same. —Editor