…a cause of non-existence in any respect, nor can it be produced by it, nor act upon it, nor be acted upon by it. That it is neither produced by sheer nothingness nor acted upon by it is self-evident. As for its not being a cause of non-existence: if it were alleged to cause absolute nothingness, absolute nothingness needs no existing cause; and if the non-existence concerned contains any trace of existence, that trace must itself have a cause. Were the cause complete and the recipient receptive, no element of non-existence could find its way into it, for whenever the cause is complete and the locus capable, the effect necessarily comes into being. Thus, wherever non-existence is found, it is because of some absence in the cause or in the locus; accordingly, it is not pure existence.

It follows that when a cause fails to produce its effect, this is either because a required condition is missing—which is itself a form of non-existence—or because a hindrance is present; yet its capacity to hinder stems from the weakness of the cause, which again is an absence of its strength and perfection. Hence, existence is never the cause of sheer non-existence. From this arises the fourfold division, namely that pure existence is nothing but good.

To clarify: every evil in the world falls under one of two headings—either pain itself or the cause of pain. The latter includes the sinful deeds that necessitate punishment. As for the pain actually experienced, it can arise only due to some form of non-existence; its cause may be the rupture of a connection, and such rupture is merely the absence of the cohesion and linkage between the two things—a state of corruption and evil.

Regarding the cause of pain, I have established in a comprehensive discourse that the root…