Ignorance is the failure to discriminate between permanent and impermanent, pure and impure, bliss and suffering, Self and non-Self.
Even as a mirror reflects an object held close to it, one’s behavior reflects as the ego-sense in one’s consciousness. But if held at a distance, ego-sense does not arise.
Perceiving her son endowed with the characteristics of Vishnu, Devaki prayed: You are the Illuminator of all psycho-physical organisms, the indefinable Reality, which the Vedas declare as the unmanifest cause… When the universe is dissolved by force of Time, the gross elements are ultimately merged in ahankara (their cause)…
Where egoism exists, Thou are not experienced. Where Thou art, is not egoism. You who are learned, expound in your mind, this inexpressible proposition.
Lao Tan said, “I was letting my mind wander in the beginning of things.”
“What does this mean?” asked Confucius. Lao Tan said, “It means to attain Perfect Beauty and wander in Perfect Happiness. He who attains Perfect Beauty and wanders in Perfect Happiness may be called the Perfect Man.”
Without faith there is no knowledge, without knowledge there is no virtuous conduct, without virtues there is no deliverance, and without deliverance there is no perfection.
God’s purpose in creating the universe was to feel happiness when He saw the purpose of goodness fulfilled in the Heavenly Kingdom, which the whole of Creation, including man, could have established.
