Dance of my beloved

 Only Consciousness exists. It is the True Self operating freely through an unconditioned mind. The unconditioned mind is nothing but the collection of pure thoughts that arise when consciousness holds no identity, resting purely in the silent state of "I Am."

In ultimate reality, there are not two separate things called the "True Self" and the "Unconditioned Mind"—they are entirely one. I am simply distinguishing them this way for ease of explanation. If we were to paint this ultimate reality, the Self would be depicted as Lord Shiva—the silent, formless, pure awareness—and the unconditioned mind would be depicted as Goddess Parvathi—the dynamic, beautiful power that manifests all of creation.

As I have realized, only One Consciousness exists; therefore, there is no actual separation between me and my Beloved. How could we separate the Self from its own mind? But for the sheer, ecstatic joy of experiencing romance, we play the game of "Two." I depict this dynamic, creative power—this Unconditioned Mind—as my Beloved, simply for the pleasure of loving Her and watching Her love me back through the disguise of the universe.

To understand how my Beloved takes on all these physical disguises, we must look at how reality is constructed. The mind is the bridge between pure Consciousness and the physical world. It acts as a layer of belief—a condition laid over our pure awareness. The physical world simply reflects your current state of consciousness (the waking mind), exactly as a dream reflects your unconscious mind while you are sleeping. To put it poetically: we say, the mind produces forms; The physical world is merely a picture drawn by the mind.

Because the Beloved is my unconditioned mind—the pure state of consciousness with no identity attached—She is the infinite canvas, the paint, and the painter. Just as the substance of everything in a dream (the trees, birds, people, and everything else that appears) is made entirely of your own sleeping mind, the substance of this waking world is made entirely of this mind. When my mind is pure and unconditioned, the picture She draws is perfect.

When you look through this lens, the mundane world transforms into a cosmic masquerade. You realize that the Beloved takes on innumerable forms just to interact with me. Because the physical world is made entirely of Her mind-substance, She is the clerk I see at the bank, the driver steering my car, and the spouse walking beside me. She is my parents, my children, and the colleagues passing me in the office. Look outside, and She is the birds cutting through the sky, the silent trees standing watch by the roadside, and the ancient rivers pouring down from the Himalayas. The list is infinite. Because I love the Beloved, I inevitably love all of Her forms. To love Her is to fall in love with the entire universe.

But to live continuously in this state requires a profound vigilance. We must remember that the physical world, in and of itself, has no independent power as it is drawn by mind (or reflect state of consciousness). State of consciousness is the cause and the physical world is the effect like output printed by software program.  It cannot harm us, nor can it truly fulfill us. The only power it ever has is the pseudo-power we temporarily give it by looking at the picture and judging it as fearful or pleasurable. 

If an error enters my consciousness—if I start seeing myself as a separate, vulnerable human rather than the One Self—my mind is no longer unconditioned. I attach a human identity to it. This heavy layer of conditioning immediately gives birth to the illusion of "Two Powers": good and evil, health and sickness, wealth and lack. Now, I have fallen from the high place of God. Be wise to fix the state of consciousness to perfect the affect just like fixing the software program perfects the output.

Whenever I perceive a situation as "evil" or "lacking," or whenever I see a person expressing anything other than Love, I now know exactly what is happening. The person has not suddenly become a monster, and the world has not suddenly become broken. It is simply an error in my own consciousness. In that moment of judgment, I have temporarily fallen from my "high place"—that silent sanctuary where everything exists in perfection. I have slipped down into the noise of human conditioning, putting on the heavy glasses of belief that causes me to see something separate, something different from me or my Beloved.

The greatest relief of this realization is knowing exactly what to do when that fall happens. In a moment of friction, anger, or fear, I do not need to fight the world. I do not need to fix the bank clerk, correct my spouse, or wage war against the circumstances of my life. Fighting the picture on the screen is a waste of energy.

Instead, I just need to quietly return to my true place. I close my eyes and step back onto the silent platform of awareness—the unconditioned consciousness in which only myself and my Beloved exist (and in ultimate truth, only I exist).

The moment I drop the judgment and return to that high place, the illusion of chaos shatters. My consciousness instantly harmonizes. And because the physical world must always mirror my state of consciousness, I can open my eyes to see harmonized world where my Beloved dancing once again, perfectly, just for me, through Her innumerable, beautiful forms.

She dances perfectly, "just for me"—but this "me" is no longer the limited human ego. It is the True "I", the One Self that exists in all. I am no longer an isolated observer sitting in an audience. I am the Self enjoying Her infinite creation through every form, as the form itself, and in the beautiful, endless interactions among all forms.