The essence1 of Enframing is that setting-upon gathered into itself which entraps the truth of its own coming to presence with oblivion.2 This entrapping disguises itself, in that it develops
1. Throughout this essay the noun Wesen will sometimes be given its traditional translation "essence," but more often it will be translated with "coming to presence." For Heidegger the essence of anything is its "enduring as presence." As such, it is the manner in which anything in its enduring comports itself effectually as what it is, i.e., the manner in which it "holds sway" through time (see QT 30; 3, n. 1). Thus in this essay the Wesen of that enframing summons—"Enframing," das Ge-stell—which governs the modern age is the "challenging setting-upon" (Stellen) that sets everything in place as supply, ruling in modern technology (cf. QT 15, n. 14; 19, n. 17) ; the Wesen of modern technology i s Enframing itself; the Wesen o f Being is the manner in which Being endures, at any given time, as the Being of whatever is (cf. p. 38); the Wesen of man is that dwelling in openness, accomplished through language and thinking, wherein Being can be and is preserved and set free into presence (cf. pp. 39-42 and "Time and Being" in On Time and Being, trans. Joan Stambaugh [New York : Harper & Row, 1972], p. 12) .
2. Vergessenheit (oblivion) is not to be confused with the propensity to forget things or with a lapse of memory. In this essay, as for Heidegger generally, Vergessenheit is to be understood in the positive sense of the Greek lēthē. It is that concealedness which is the source and foundation of all unconcealedness or truth (alētheia). There can be no unveiling unless there is concealment from whence it comes. The words of Heraclitus, physis kryptesthai philei—ordinarily translated "nature loves to hide"—would be rendered by Heidegger approximately as "concealedness is the very heart of coming into appearance" (from the transcript of the "Séminaire tenu au Thor en septembre 1969 par le Professeur Martin Heidegger," p. 21) .