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Vishnu
Parasara-
"From the waters, which are the body of Vishnu, was produced the lotus-shaped
earth, with its seas and mountains. The stars are Vishnu; forests, mountains,
regions, rivers, oceans are Vishnu: he is all that is, all that is not. He, the
lord, is identical with knowledge, through which he is all forms, but is not a
substance. You must therefore conceive mountains, oceans, and all the
diversities of earth and the rest, are the illusions of the apprenhension. When
knowledge is pure, real, universal, independent of works, and exempt from
defect, then the varieties of substance, which are the fruit of the tree of
desire,cease to exist in matter. For what is substance? Where is the thing that
is devoid of beginning, middle, and end, of one uniform nature? How can reality
be predicated of that which is subject to change, and reassumes no more its
original character? Earth is fabricated into a jar; the jar is divided into
halves; the halves are broken to pieces; the pieces become dust; the dust
becomes atoms.Say, is this reality? Though it may be so understood by man whose
Self-knowledge is impeded by his own acts. Hence, Brahman,except discriminative
knowledge, there is nothing anywhere, or at any time, that is real. Such
knowledge is but one, although it appears manifold, as diversified by the
various consequencies of our own acts. Knowledge perfect, pure, free from pain,
and detaching the affections from all that causes affliction; knowledge single
and eternal-is the supreme Vasudeva, besides whom there is nothing. The Truth
has been thus communicated to you by me; that knowledge which is truth; from
which all that differs is false. That information, however, which is of a
temporal and worldly nature, has also been imparted to you; the sacrifice, the
victim, the priest, the acid juice, the gods, the desire for heaven, the path
pursued by acts of devotion and the rest, and the worlds that are their
consequences, have been displayed to you. In that universe which I have
described, he forever migrates who is subject to the influence of works, but
he who knows Vasudeva to be eternal, immutable,and of one unchanging form, may
continue to perform works,as thereby he enters into the deity."
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"Before a man goes through zen, mountains are mountains and rivers are
rivers. When a man is studying zen, mountains are no longer mountains and rivers
no longer rivers. But when a man has realized zen, mountains are once again
mountains and rivers, once again rivers." - a zen koan.
