The Inner Path: 2

Two voices together (slowly recited): I am Brahman—this very recognition is the true pilgrimage. When all practice ceases, the soul awakens by itself… nameless, formless, yet infinite light incarnate.

Voice 1 (in a tone of melancholy inquiry): This world... this earth, water, sky—where do they come from? Where do I stand, if emptiness surrounds me on all sides?
Voice 2 (slowly, with certainty reciting): All of this is but the expression of undivided joy. Every particle, every ray, every echo—merely the shadow of one consciousness.
Voice 1 (startled somewhat, vision expanding): Then what of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva? My body, mind, knowledge—are they all but this one consciousness?
Voice 2 (in calm conviction): Yes. Body and mind, pleasure and pain, teacher and disciple, birth and death, day and night—all are divisions of that consciousness. What you are is the ultimate truth. Everything else is merely a mask.
Voice 1 (with some wonder, some belief): But I am small, inert, limited! How can I be that infinite?
Voice 2 (in an affectionate utterance): Because there is no 'you'—to say 'I' is the very bondage. Where thinking ceases, there you are—eternal, unmoving, unchanging.
Voice 1 (voice trembling with deep understanding): Then these five elements? These relationships, this love? Are they all illusion?
Voice 2 (in an impartial tone, in quietness): As long as you think 'I am this body,' everything will seem as real as reality itself. But there is only one truth—nothing exists but consciousness.

Two voices together (slowly, in a tone that pierces the heart): This is I—neither small nor vast. Neither birth nor death. I am that one, who has no name, no form. I am supreme bliss, silent consciousness. There is nothing but this one I.

Voice 1 (a voice laden with shocked questioning): All that I see... hear... touch—is it all an illusion? This body, this mind—are they but forms of emptiness?
Voice 2 (unmoved, unshaken in tone; slowly, with infinite certainty): Yes... this world is like the horn of a hare—never was, never is, never will be.
Voice 1 (in mixed doubt and wonder): Then the body, the senses, action, dharma? Pilgrimage, penance, the guru, God? In your words—are these too false?
Voice 2 (a voice arising from deep silence): All false—hearing, reflection, meditation, perfection, power—however they burn in outward display, all are but the shadow-play of illusion. Whatever is seen, whatever is held—all is imagination.
Voice 1 (as if anguished): Then is there nothing? Is all unreal? Are you saying—even God is a dream?
Voice 2 (slow, yet in a manner that pierces the very essence of truth): Neither God nor knowledge, neither sin nor virtue. Neither world nor liberation. Whatever brings the sense of duality, that alone is illusion.