 In Nishida’s middle period, the paradigm for knowing is a “pure seeing” (tada miru) beyond all acting and volition. Nishida claims that as finite individuals we can approach this ideal by way of thoroughly negating or emptying the ego. “By truly emptying the self, the field of consciousness can reflect an object just as it is” (NKZ IV, 221). The self reaches the place of absolute nothingness, and therefore first truly comes into contact with other beings, by way of thoroughly emptying itself in a movement of “immanent transcendence” that takes it back through the depths of the field of consciousness.