Standing at the water’s edge I saw the strange calm, and wondered how in our violent universe; the winds could be so still, and the surface of our lake so wave less. It seemed so solid, and the reflection of the clouds above and the cliff face across the water so clear, as if it was a photograph. To all appearances the scenery was a reflection, of nature’s beauty and wonder and a strange joy engulfed me. I felt that I could reach out and touch it and it would be like a wall, and maybe I could even walk across it and reach the other side. My soul seemed to merge into the waters and become one with its peace, or maybe it is because I am at peace, that I have allowed the lake to become still, like my thoughtless mind. I stand at the edge with no past and no future, and just am this moment, and the lake and I are one. This reality is ours together and the only truth, and all else is just a figment of our imagination.

Do you often come to the edge, and are you so agitated with your worries and your hopes and dreams, and entangled in your thoughts, that you do not see this world’s truth. Are you lost in the shadows of your mind and see only that which you wish to shape, into your own reality, and feel threatened by all, which you cannot shape. Is your imagination so warped by your thoughts and desires, that all you see is what you want to see, and how you wish your world to be, that you forget to see what is out there, in front of you?  Do not worry as I was like you too, always busy and always becoming, and never pausing, but striving for all that was mine, or would be mine. I was out to shape this universe to my will, and my life force was strong, and nobody would stop me from reaching my goal, just like you.

I throw a pebble and watch the ripples grow, and it is as if the aura of my consciousness is spreading all around me, mirroring the ever expanding ripples. I am of this universe and life is consciousness and who can put limits on consciousness? I am not bound by my sense organs or my mind, as my consciousness is so ancient, that it reaches beyond time itself. Space time does not confine consciousness, as it flows and ebbs in eons of time, and galaxies of space. Thought itself is useless, as it is not the mind that defines me, but my life force, and that is more than this life itself. How can you trap this consciousness in a body, and expect the senses or the mind to even try tocomprehend, its existence. The only thing inside us is what we cannot hear or feel, we can feel an ant walk on our skin but not the blood flowing in our veins.

Human history like the story of evolution is violent and the survival of the fittest, not of the strongest, but those most adaptable to change. These killings, genocides, wars, rapes, murders and crimes have been there from our beginning, and will continue till our end. We cannot deny our animal nature, nor our existence as social tribal beings, who belong to clans and have belief systems, which have developed over centuries. Our religions, customs, music, culture, language, food define us, and we are uncomfortable outside our immediate fellow creatures. We fight wars to preserve our way of life, and minor belief differences can expand, to pitch Protestants against Catholics, Muslims against Jews, Hindus against Buddhists and so on. The barbarity we dish out to fellow humans, is unrivalled in the animal kingdom, where we kill for pleasure or revenge, and not for food.

So I stand on the edge marveling at this peace of life, that I have brought around myself. Having been reborn it is now my time to attain the highest enlightenment as per our beliefs. We do not shy away from identifying with this universe or Brahman and we do not fear the unknown as death has no meaning to the consciousness. Consciousness is and it will be, so I still the lake again, and bid it to reflect the universe, just like me. There is no duality here and what others see as a solid body, I see as the cosmic dust, which has come together from all around the universe, and will go back into it when I am done with this body. I am a mere wave at the quantum level and all this permanence is just an illusion. I float across the lake, and it welcomes me in its warm embrace, and we are one. I am thoughtless, yet I am life itself.