XXII

In a quiet dawn after countless cycles turned, a revelation descends like gentle rain. Through all your deaths and rebirths, you have earned

a glimpse behind creation’s curtain’s frame. Meditating at sunrise, you slip into a trance where boundaries dissolve, self and other the same.

In an ocean of light, you suddenly dance- no longer a drop isolated and small, but one with the sea in glorious expanse.

You sense at once the interconnected All: every creature, every star, every day and night woven together in one shimmering shawl.

The “you” that died a thousand times in light and dark was a wave on this infinite sea, always changing, yet the water is one outright.

Your essence, the thread, is identity-free and yet encompasses all you have been. It is the spark of life, pure Being to be.

Call it Atman, soul, or the Christ within- the name matters not in this sacred space. You experience directly the truth beyond skin.

That eternal part of you never left grace; it watched the parade of your days incarnate, untouched by their passing, untouched by place.

In dying daily, you peel back the ornate layers of illusion separating you from this, your immortal and original state.

Now you see clearly: the one who goes through birth and death each day is like an actor’s role, but behind it the Witness resides ever true.

That Witness is one with Life’s total soul- a droplet of Brahman, divine and vast. It was never born and will never fall.

Suddenly, any remaining fear is past. Even the final death cannot enslave you, for you know the real Self at long last.

Tears of joy fall as light continues to imbue your awareness with peace past understanding. You whisper “I am That,” knowing it as true.

In this union of self with All, expanding beyond heartbeat and mind into boundless love, you rest in the knowledge everlasting.

Slowly, gently, you return, as from above back to the particular day at hand- the sun on your face, birds singing thereof.

Yet something has shifted-like grains of sand resettled, inner landscape forever changed. You carry infinity in your gaze so grand.

With each daily death now you see unchained that you are Life itself playing a game. You are the fire, the ash, and phoenix ordained.

The veil has parted; nothing is the same.