Thus we get the second mode, or the second status of the extant One; that all or the universal content, that proper essence of God, which in the first status or in the first mode (manner) of existence was contained in a latent state, only as potential, here, in this second mode [of being] comes forth as a certain ideal actuality; if in the first state it was hidden in the depth of the subjective, unmanifested being, here it is set forth as an object.

This object cannot, of course, be external to the divine subject. Since the latter, in the capacity of the absolute, cannot have anything outside of Himself, it is only His own inner content, which He through His own internal action distinguishes from Himself as from the extant One, segregates Himself, or objectifies it. …

Thus the second state or the second mode of being of the extant One is but a different expression if that which is already in the first. But in the first state that which is being expressed, i.e., the absolute content as the totality of all essential forms or the fullness of all ideas, appears only internally, in the positive possibility or power of the absolute subject, and consequently has only the essential, not the actual being, since all actuality belongs here to this unconditional subject, or the extant One in His immediate unity. He, as the one, is here a pure act, pure unconditional actuality, about which we can get a certain knowledge when — abstracting ourselves from all the manifested, already formed content of our external and internal life, abstracting ourselves not only from all the impressions, but also from all the feelings, thoughts, and desires — we gather all our forces in a single concentration of immediate spiritual being, in the positive power of which are found all the acts of our spirit, and by which is defined the entire circumference of our life. When we plunge into that mute and immovable depth from which the muddy stream of our actuality takes its beginning, without violating its chastity and peace — in that generic source of our spiritual life, we inwardly come into contact with the original source of the universal life, come to cognate God essentially, as the primordial beginning or the substance of all: we come to know [then] God the Father. Such is the first image of the extant One, the reality of Him alone. In order that not only He Himself as the subject, but also that of which He is the subject, i.e., the whole fullness of the absolute content might receive the same actuality and from potential become actual, a certain act of self-determination or self-limitation of the extant One is necessary. Indeed, outside of God, [regarded] as the absolute, there is not, and cannot be, anything unconditionally independent, anything that from the beginning might have been His 'other one', which would have determined the extant One from outside of Him: therefore, every definite being [existence] can be primordially only an act of self-determination of the absolutely-extant One. In this act, the extant One on one hand contrasts himself; sets forth Himself in contradistinction with his own content as its 'other one', or as an object — this is the act of self-differentiation of the extant One into two poles, one of which expresses the unconditional oneness, while the other one expresses the 'all', or plurality; on the other hand, through his own self-determination the extant One receives a certain active force, becomes energy.

In fact, if the extant One were only in the first states i.e., if it were only an unlimited and consequently indifferent act, it would not be able to act; for then it would have no real object for which the (being in itself actuality) would appear as a positive possibility or force. For every action by its own meaning is a unity of force and actuality, or a manifestation of its own inner actuality, as force, on its 'other one', or for the 'other one'. And since outside of God there is nothing, and His object is contained in Himself, then His action is not a determination of the other by another [of one antipode by another antipode] but self-determination, i.e., the segregation from Himself of His own content, or the objectivization of it through self-limitation in its immediate, unlimited, or purely-actual being. As the absolute, Divinity cannot be only an immediate act, it has to be a potentiality or power also; but, as contained in the absolute, this power is only its own power over itself, or over its own immediacy. If a limitation by another contradicts the conception of the absolute, self-limitation not only does not contradict it, but is directly demanded by it. In fact, in determining itself and thereby actuating its own content, the extant, obviously, not only does not lose its own actuality, but on the contrary realized it fully, becoming actual not only in itself, but also for itself. Since that which God actualizes in the act of His own self-determination — all, or the fullness of everyone — is His own content or substance; then, also, its realization is only the full expression or manifestation of that being to whom this content or substance belongs, and who is expressed in or by it in the same way as the subject is expressed by the predicate. …