This is a transcript of a recent verbal conversation between Adi Suyash and one of his sādhikās, addressing some of her questions about Tibetan Buddhism. The discussion explores yogic visualization and symbolic deity practices, examining how identification can expand from the physical body to the deity, the mind, and ultimately consciousness, rather than being destroyed. It also explores Śūnyatā through dreams, rainbows, and the world as a dependent, dream-like expression of consciousness, showing how realization transforms our attachment to life without requiring us to abandon life or creation.
Sadhika: Okay. So, in Tibetan Buddhism, there is a tradition of yoga, which includes visionary experiences and symbolic practices. What exactly are these? What are visionary experiences, what do symbolic practices involve, and what is their purpose? Why are these practices performed?
Adi Suyash: Look, visionary experiences are essentially bhāvanā—cultivation through visualization. Bhāvanā means imagining something so vividly that it comes into existence, it begins to feel real.
Sadhika: You mean the visualization practices we perform?
Adi Suyash: Exactly. That is what bhāvanā means.
Visualization is extremely important in Tantra and Yoga because when you imagine something as real, you begin to accept it as real, and that sense of reality is important for the practice.
So you are asked to perceive your body as the body of the deity.
You imagine: “This body of mine is the deity’s body.” You visualize your hands and legs as green or blue, and so on, exactly as you visualize the deity.
What does this accomplish?
First, it helps loosen your attachment to the physical body.
Ordinarily, you already consider your body to be your own. You identify yourself with it—you think, “I am this body.”
So it is difficult to simply abandon identification with the body.
If I directly tell you, “Give up your identification with the body,” you won’t be able to do it.
So instead, the practice says: Fine, you are the body, there is no problem with that. But expand your conception of what that body is.
This body is the deity’s body.
And within this body are countless powers. All these subtle beings exist within it. All the sacred pilgrimage places exist within it. The entire universe exists within it.
So there is no problem in saying, “I am this body.”
But now you are saying, “I am everything.”
Everything is contained within this body.
That is how you are supposed to visualize it.
And this body that you have created within your own body, the deity’s body, is ultimately what?
It is the mind, isn’t it?
It is a visualization created by the mind.
So you are beginning to identify with the mind rather than with the physical body.
Sadhika: Right.
Adi Suyash: When you imagine a body through the mind and begin to regard that imagined body as your real body, you are identifying with the mind.
And the mind is subtler than the physical body. It is more expansive and, to a great extent, more unlimited.
Sadhika: It can expand.
Adi Suyash: Exactly.
The physical body can only be here, in this particular moment.
But the mind can go anywhere.
The mind isn’t bound by time. Right now, it can travel back ten years into the past. It can imagine what was happening two days ago.
It isn’t bound by time.
At the same time, the mind isn’t restricted to space as well, in the way the body is.
Right now, it is here; in the next moment, it can be in Uttarakhand; in the next, it can be in Delhi. It can be anywhere.
So the mind isn’t bound by time and space in the way the physical body is.
Therefore, on the path toward becoming unlimited, we first identify with the mind.
Through the mind, we create a body and then identify with that body, a body created by the mind, a mental body.
In Buddhism, this is called the Sambhogakāya.
And after that, you identify with the Dharmakāya, which is Śūnya.
Sadhika: Yes, because here it says that first you engage in the visualization of the deity, and eventually you have to let go of even the visualization.
Adi Suyash: Exactly.
First, you move beyond identification with the physical body and identify with the visualized body—accepting the world you are creating through visualization as your reality.
Then you let go of even that and rest in Śūnya.
Sadhika: But wouldn’t this confuse us? Because at the same time, we’re also told that everything is a dream. So if I visualize the deity and imagine that I am that deity, isn’t that also just a dream?
Adi Suyash: Yes—and if everything is a dream, then visualization actually becomes easier.
If everything is a dream, and dreams themselves are created through imagination and visualization, then it becomes easier for us to accept everything as real.
If everything is a dream, then what is the difference between this world, this physical body, and the deity’s body that I am imagining?
They are both equally part of dream-reality.
So I begin to regard that imagined body as more real because it is more expansive and less limited.
It makes sense, doesn’t it?
This too is dream-reality. I have imagined this, and I have also imagined that body.
So I choose that body because it is more unlimited.
And eventually, I let go of that body as well.
Sadhika: So, when we visualize the deity, we do it with the understanding that we are the deity.
Adi Suyash: Right.
Sadhika: That is our real body, and this physical body is the false one.
Adi Suyash: Right, this physical body is less real.
All these practices are constructed this way because when you first encounter them, you might think they are merely make-believe practices. You keep imagining things and living in an imaginary world.
When you read about the practices of Matsyendranath or Padmasambhava, it can initially seem as though they are simply asking you to live inside your imagination.
But they are trying to communicate something much deeper:
Imagination itself is reality, because this world too is imagination.
This world is also an imagination.
If we accept this world as real, then why shouldn’t we accept what we imagine within ourselves as real?
This is why you begin to develop faith in your own imagination.
Until now, you’ve been told that imagination isn’t real.
But this entire world is itself your imagination, because nothing exists independently outside your experience. Everything is taking place within your mind.
Isn’t it?
So when you begin to accept that the imagination within you is equally real, you begin to see both in the same way:
The world is imagination, and what I am imagining is also imagination.
Sadhika: Does manifestation work too?
Adi Suyash: Manifestation works too.
You can change your reality. You can become whatever you wish, you can become a Buddha, you can become a deity.
And then, eventually, you let go of both.
Sadhika: So when do we let go? How do we know when it is time?
Adi Suyash: It happens when realization begins to arise.
When you begin to believe deeply in your own imagination, you eventually understand that the essence of the outside world and the essence of imagination are the same.
The fundamental substance from which reality arises and the fundamental substance from which imagination arises are one and the same.
Sadhika: Consciousness.
Adi Suyash: Yes.
And where does that come from? What is the source of both?
Consciousness.
Then you let go of all of them and become established in consciousness. You identify with consciousness itself.
Sadhika: So you go so deeply into your own practice that, through the practice itself, you come to realize awareness. And once that happens, the deity visualizations naturally fall away on their own, and you become established in that awareness.
Adi Suyash: Exactly.
Sadhika: And what about symbolic practices? Are those symbolic practices as well? The deity you are imagining is symbolic.
Adi Suyash: Exactly. When you visualize Shiva, every single element of Shiva’s form is symbolic.
Sadhika: Like having a snake around his neck?
Adi Suyash: Everything about him has symbolic significance. Each element represents some aspect of enlightenment, some quality of the form, or some state that you are trying to attain.
His blue throat, for example, symbolizes an awakened Vishuddhi Chakra.
His third eye… Ājñā Chakra.
Everything has meaning.
His crown, his matted hair rising 12 fingers upward—that represents the crown chakra
From there, the nectar of Kundalini, symbolized by the Ganga, flows downward.
Every element has a meaning.
When Kundalini awakens, a kind of nectar rises upward and then flows downward, nourishing you. Turiya descends into all three lower states, waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, like oil enveloping and containing them, while also being contained within them, nourishing them. That is what the Ganga symbolizes.
And the tiger skin he wears?
It symbolizes that he has mastered his animal instincts.
He wears them, but he no longer identifies with them.
The animal nature is dead, so to speak. He simply wears its skin.
Sadhika: So it shows that he has conquered it…
Adi Suyash: …that he has already overcome that animal nature, and it has now become an ornament for him.
Sadhika: It’s almost as though he’s saying, “Look, I have conquered this.”
Adi Suyash: Yes.
He keeps himself covered with it.
If he were to reveal his true nature completely, naked, ordinary people might not be able to accept it.
So, in order to live within the world, he wears the mask of an animal—“I am a paśu. Like you all.”
But he is not actually a paśu.
The animal nature within him has already died.
That is the point.
The entire body of the deity is constructed in this way.
At the subconscious or unconscious level, it communicates all these teachings to you symbolically and visually.
And our minds receive visual information much more effectively than written words.
If I show you something, you are likely to remember it much better than if I merely describe it to you.
We tend to retain what we see.
That is why even in dreams, the messages that arise in our minds come primarily in visual form.
Whatever message consciousness wants to communicate to us, it communicates through imagery rather than through words.
That’s why, in dreams, you rarely find yourself actually reading.
And even when you seem to be reading, the text keeps changing. You can never quite manage to read exactly what is written.
Words are relatively new to us.
Visual perception is ancient.
Do you understand?
Sadhika: Yes. Okay. The next question is:
“An enlightened practitioner sees the whole world as the beautiful expression or dance of emptiness rather than as separate, solid things.”
Could you explain this practically, perhaps with an example?
Adi Suyash: Look at your phone.
There are so many images and pieces of text moving across its screen.
What is all of that?
It’s simply a dance of light, isn’t it?
If the light disappeared, would any of it remain visible?
Play a video on your phone.
Anything.
Look at the video playing on the screen. Everything is moving, dancing.
What is it?
It’s just light.
If I switch off the light of the screen, can you see any of it?
Sadhika: It’s empty.
Adi Suyash: Exactly.
There is nothing there apart from light.
All these numbers you see, the graphs, the things moving across the screen—what are they?
They are simply light.
What else are they?
And now, when you can no longer see them, you stop interacting with the screen because the light has disappeared.
So this entire display is essentially light.
And what is light ultimately?
In Buddhism, that is called Śūnya—emptiness.
We call it consciousness.
So the entire existence is a dance of consciousness.
Right?
Sadhika: (Nods) So when we are awake, what we are seeing through our eyes—the entire scene unfolding before us, which we might even call a drama—whether the weather changes or someone comes and asks us for something, this entire dance is happening through the light of consciousness.
Right?
Adi Suyash: Right. So when the drama is happening, it is consciousness itself through which and in which the drama is taking place.
Sadhika: But when we sleep, our eyes are closed.
And yet when we dream, the drama continues…
Adi Suyash: (A rainbow had appeared after rain. Adi Suyash points toward the sky outside the window.) Look, there’s a rainbow…
Sadhika: WOW…
Adi Suyash: That rainbow is actually a very beautiful way of understanding what Buddhism calls Śūnya—how the world can arise from emptiness.
Where exactly does the rainbow exist?
Where is its existence?
When it rains, a rainbow appears.
So is the rainbow inside the raindrops?
If it is inside the raindrops, why doesn’t it appear every time it rains?
Is the rainbow in the sky?
If it is in the sky, why doesn’t it appear when there is no rain?
Is it in our eyes?
Where is it?
The rainbow exists dependently upon several conditions coming together at a particular angle.
When all those conditions align in a precise way, the rainbow appears.
There is no independent existence of the rainbow.
It is emptiness.
It is śūnyatā—empty of independent existence.
Do you understand?
Where is the rainbow?
Does it actually exist somewhere?
It simply appears.
But if you go looking for the rainbow itself, you won’t find it anywhere.
Sadhika: Why?
Adi Suyash: Where is it?
The rainbow isn’t located anywhere independently.
Sadhika: Then why can I see it?
Adi Suyash: That’s exactly the point.
It appears even though you cannot find it as an independent thing.
When light passes through water droplets, a rainbow appears when you observe it from a particular angle.
The rainbow depends upon light, water droplets, and the observer’s eyes.
In exactly the same way, the entire world is dependent upon countless conditions. And those countless conditions are further dependent, and so on…
Sadhika: But when I sleep and dream, there is no external light. My eyes are closed. So why do I still see dreams?
Adi Suyash: That is because consciousness itself is the light.
There may be no external physical light, but there is still prakāśa—the light of consciousness. The light of all lights. Taṁ bhāntam eva sarvam anubhāti, tasya bhāsā idaṁ sarvam vibhāti, “Following Him as He shines, everything shines; by His light alone, all this world is illuminated.”
Prakāśa means illumination, consciousness.
So if this illumination is capable of creating the world outside, then the same illumination can create the world within.
The same light of consciousness creates the dreams occurring within the mind and the world appearing outside.
If the world existed completely independently of consciousness, then why would you still see the world while you are asleep?
Do you understand?
So everything is a dance of Śūnya, a dance of consciousness.
Sadhika: Then when will I stop creating everything? How can I reach a state where I am no longer creating anything at all?
Adi Suyash: As long as you have desires, you will continue creating.
But that isn’t the point.
Why should we stop creating?
Why would we want to stop?
Creation itself is so beautiful. See the rainbow…
The point is simply to realize that everything is your own creation.
And once you realize that, you no longer become attached to it, because you know:
“This is my own creation. This is my own illusion. This is my own dream.”
When you are dreaming and suddenly realize that you are dreaming, you stop being afraid of the monster that was frightening you.
And whatever you wanted in the dream, even when you receive it, you no longer develop the same attachment to it.
There is neither rāga nor dveṣa—neither attachment nor aversion.
Once you know that a dream is a dream, you no longer cling to it or hate it.
The same thing happens with the world.
You continue to enjoy the world, but you are no longer bound by it.
So we don’t have to stop creating.
Sadhika: But how do I understand this?
If I am creating the entire world through my consciousness, then suppose my mother comes in front of me and speaks to me abusively.
Surely I didn’t create that?
Adi Suyash: You did.
Sadhika: How?
Adi Suyash: Suppose you are asleep at that moment.
If you aren’t creating or experiencing anything, would your mother exist for you if she came into the room and spoke to you?
Sadhika: Well, I’d be asleep. I wouldn’t be conscious of her.
Adi Suyash: Exactly.
So you are the one creating the mother within your experience.
Suppose you’re sleeping deeply and your mother comes, speaks to you, and then leaves.
Did anything happen to you?
Sadhika: No.
Adi Suyash: Did you know that your mother had come? Did you receive her abuses?
Sadhika: No.
Adi Suyash: Exactly.
So, in your experience, your mother existed only when you experienced her.
Sadhika: Yes
Adi Suyash: That’s the point.
Your experience is your world.
The world is your experience of the world.
What you are creating is your experience, and that experience is the world as it appears to you.
Sadhika: So are you saying that if my mother speaks to me abusively, and I develop hatred toward her because of what she said, then even that hatred was something I created?
Adi Suyash: You created your mother as well.
Sadhika: How can you say that? She is physically standing in front of me.
Adi Suyash: She exists in your experience because you are conscious of her.
Your consciousness is creating your experience of her.
If your consciousness did not create that experience, how would you distinguish her from anything else?
At the physical level, she is simply a collection of atoms—a vast arrangement of molecules.
Go even deeper, and she is energy.
Go deeper still, and she is consciousness.
You gave that collection of matter the name and form “mother.”
Then you associated a particular language with her.
Then you gave meaning to her words and actions.
That’s how the experience was created.
And what is doing all of this?
Your mind.
Your consciousness.
Sadhika: So everything I see in this world—whether it’s a person, the weather, trees, animals, anything at all—is not actually existing independently out there. It is being created through my consciousness?
Adi Suyash: Yes.
It isn’t “there” in the way you imagine it to be.
When you say it exists somewhere in space, even that space is appearing within consciousness.
First, consciousness creates the framework of time and space, and then everything that appears within that framework appears through it.
So what we ordinarily perceive as physical—people, trees, solid objects—does not possess independent existence in the way we imagine.
Ultimately, there is only Śūnya—emptiness.
It has to be realized through practice and spiritual discipline. Do you understand?
Sadhika: Got it. So the next question is: when we say Aham Brahmasmi, if I take that to mean that I am Tara, then won’t I become attached to that identity as well? We are supposed to dissolve all identities, aren’t we? So wouldn’t this identity also create ego within me? What about attachment to this identity…
Adi Suyash: Listen, listen, listen. When you say Aham Brahmasmi, the Brahman you are referring to there is the Śūnya of Buddhism. It is neither Tara nor anything else. It is free from all name and form. It is simply Brahman; it is simply Śūnya—nothingness, complete nothingness, or consciousness.
When you say, “I am Tara,” that is merely a tool for reaching Brahman. First, you imagine Tara as your own body. You visualize her form through your mind, and then you identify yourself with that form. Once you have identified with it, you eventually realize that what you are identifying with—that form—is itself a creation of the mind, because the Tara you are visualizing has been created by the mind.
Then you realize that this too is just as unreal as the rest of the world—or, alternatively, just as real as the rest of the world. And then you go to the source and ask: Who is creating both of these?
That is Brahman. That is Śūnya.
Then you understand Tara’s true Śūnya, her true essence, her real Dharmakāya, her true nature—which is Brahman, which is Śūnya.
So this Brahman, this Śūnya, is the real form of Tara. And to reach that, you first imagine Tara’s body.
In this way, identification begins to dissolve. First, you identify with something imaginary, and then you let go of even the mind itself.
Sadhika: One minute, can I read the whole question first?
Adi Suyash: Go ahead.
Sadhika: Okay. Aham Brahmasmi—how am I supposed to take myself to be Tara? Won’t I become attached to that identity as well? We are supposed to dissolve all identities, so wouldn’t this identity also create ego within me? I could become attached to it and develop a superiority complex. I could fall into the same trap of “I am Shakti” that I experienced before, which eventually led to mental illness for me.
But at the same time, we cannot completely eliminate the ego either, because if we want to remain within Māyā, otherwise the soul would leave the human body, as it has in your case. So what are we actually supposed to do? If we attain liberation but still have to remain on Earth and fulfil our goals, then how should we live?
Adi Suyash: Okay. Ego is simply not knowing who you are in your completeness—that is what you currently call ego or (incomplete) Ahamtā. And when you come to know who you truly are, you enter into Pūrṇa Ahamtā, complete ego.
Ego does not have to be destroyed. We simply have to make it complete.
Right now, our sense of “I” is limited. We do not know ourselves completely; we do not know ourselves in our totality. So we identify with that limited form of existence, which we call Aṇu.
Aṇu means small, limited, tiny, incomplete.
Because we do not perceive ourselves in our fullness, we take the little portion that we can perceive and say, “This is me.”
All we have to do is expand that small self—make it larger and larger, as far as it can possibly expand.
And that expansion, that vastness, is what we call Brahman.
Brahman literally refers to that which is vast, expansive, ever-growing, whereas Aṇu refers to that which is small and limited. That is why we have names such as Brihajjābāla Upanishad and Brihadāraṇyaka Upanishad—Bṛhat means vast, expansive.
So this Jīva, this limited sense of self, is called Aṇu. Aṇu literally means atomic, small, tiny.
And what we have to do is expand this Aṇu into Brahman—into that which is vast and all-encompassing.
So the task is simply to expand the small into the vast. You don’t have to destroy it.
What would you destroy?
Now, when you identify with Tara, that is a tool. First, you move away from identification with your physical body and identify with Tara instead.
Your body was small and limited; now it has become somewhat more expansive, because Tara is greater than your physical body.
Tara is the mind—and the mind is greater than the body because it is far less limited. It is not confined by the same limitations of time and space. The body may become dark and that may cause you anxiety, but in your mind you can imagine yourself as fair.
So first, you move beyond the limitations of the physical body and identify with the mind.
Sadhika: But there are many people who, when they identify with a deity, develop a superiority complex. They begin to feel that they have become extremely spiritual, or they develop this kind of spiritual ego—that they are special because they…
Adi Suyash: Special compared to whom?
Sadhika: Compared to other people.
Adi Suyash: And what are those other people?
Sadhika: They feel that everyone else is ordinary, while they are special because they are doing certain spiritual practices or because they have attained something…
Adi Suyash: Exactly. Then they haven’t understood it properly.
Why do those other people exist at all?
When a guru tells you to identify with Tara, you are first told that Tara’s true form is Śūnya, aren’t you? There is no genuine tradition or teaching where this fundamental point is simply omitted.
When I tell you to identify with Shiva, what is Shiva’s true form?
Śūnya—or consciousness.
Sadhika: But nobody ever explained this to me.
For example, there is Ramana Maharshi. My father once read a book by him, many years ago, when he was doing spiritual practices. Ramana Maharshi said that one should completely tear apart one’s ego—completely destroy the sense of “I.”
So my father understood it that way, and I understood it that way too: that we have to completely eliminate the ego, and only then can we attain liberation.
But what you are saying here is different. You are saying that we should expand the Aṇu, which is the ego, until we encompass the entire universe within ourselves and become selfless.
Adi Suyash: Where exactly will you tear it apart? And where will it go after you tear it apart?
Tell me—how can you completely destroy something?
If something exists, how can you make it become non-existent?
Take this piece of paper, or take this mask, and show me how you will completely destroy it.
Sadhika: I’ll burn it completely. It will become ashes…
Adi Suyash: And what happens when you burn it?
Ashes remain.
The ashes are still there, aren’t they?
So where did it disappear?
Sadhika: But its solid form has disappeared.
Adi Suyash: And what does it matter that the solid form has disappeared?
Something remains. Ashes are solid too.
Sadhika: It became emptiness.
Adi Suyash: Where is the emptiness?
There are ashes.
Where is the emptiness?
And it isn’t only the ashes. The air released from it is also part of it. The carbon dioxide, the hydrogen, everything that emerged from it—that is all part of it.
Where did it disappear?
Its form simply changed.
Sadhika: The form changed.
Adi Suyash: Exactly.
If you try to destroy the ego, the ego will simply change its form. That’s all.
It will remain just as incomplete and limited as before.
The ashes will still weigh the same. They won’t suddenly become something infinitely greater….
Sadhika: So, you mean…
Adi Suyash: It won’t become smaller either. It will remain essentially the same.
Sadhika: So, for example, I remove my identification with myself as a person, as this individual, and then I become deeply identified with a deity instead. And then I develop a superiority complex around that deity.
Earlier, my superiority complex was based on this body and this individuality. Now it becomes based on the deity…
Adi Suyash: No, no, no. Understand what I’m saying.
I just explained that trying to tear the ego apart does nothing. If you try to destroy the ego, you merely change its form. That’s it.
Sadhika: For example?
Adi Suyash: Suppose you try to destroy your ego by saying, “I am nothing. I am merely a servant of God.”
You keep saying things like this, believing that you are destroying the ego.
Sadhika: Right.
Adi Suyash: Then you develop a superiority complex:
“I am a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I am a devotee of Vishnu. I am a devotee of Krishna. My God is supreme, therefore I too am somehow supreme.”
The ego is still there. It has simply changed its form.
“I am a slave. I am extremely small. But whose slave am I?”
The greatest Lord in the entire universe!
And there you have it—the supreme ego.
Then you start fighting with devotees of Shiva.
So the ego merely changes its form.
If you try to change the ego, all you accomplish is changing its form.
An ordinary person may try to destroy his ego by changing his name. He takes Sannyāsa, changes his name.
He was Ramesh.
Now he is Swami Rameshananda Saraswati.
But the ego is still there, isn’t it?
“I am Swamiji. Don’t call me ‘yaar.’ I am a Swami.”
The ego has simply taken on a new form.
Now the point is this:
You cannot tear it apart. You cannot burn it away.
(Picks a mask) Right now, for example, you identify with this mask.
Suppose you burn it.
Now there are ashes.
So you begin identifying with the ashes.
The ashes are just as tiny as the mask was.
The mask weighs one gram; the ashes will also weigh one gram.
You’re still just as small.
Where has the expansion happened?
What I’m saying is: identify with the mask. There is no problem with that.
But don’t try to destroy it.
Simply realize that this mask is made of the very same reality as this bedsheet.
And this bedsheet is made of the same reality as the wall.
There is ultimately no difference between this and that wall.
The entire universe is one.
Realize that the consciousness from which this mask arises is the same consciousness from which the entire universe arises.
So this is how the practice you are talking about should be approached:
Right now, you identify with your physical body.
That’s perfectly fine.
Simply expand that identification.
Now consider this body to be Tara’s body.
“This is Tara’s body.”
And as you begin to imagine Tara’s body, you gradually start identifying with something greater than your ordinary physical body—the form you are imagining.
The green colour.
The lotus in her hand.
The rainbow behind her.
All of it.
And what is all of that?
Thought.
It is simply an imagination.
So you begin to regard that imagination as real as the world.
Right?
Then, once you begin to regard the imagination as real, you will eventually ask:
Where did this imagination arise from?
It arose from consciousness. Understanding that a thought or visual has arisen from consciousness is much easier than understanding that the physical world outside has also arisen from it. So, first, you take the imagined to be the same as the real world, and then understand it as arising from consciousness.
Everything in this universe, just like imagination, has also arisen from that same consciousness.
If everything in existence has arisen from consciousness, and everything is ultimately that consciousness, then superior to whom are you?
I ask you—who could you possibly be superior to?
X is superior to Y, but if Y is ultimately the same consciousness as X, then what is the difference?
Both are consciousness.
So who is superior to whom?
“I am Shiva, and therefore I am superior to you.”
If I am superior to you, then I haven’t actually realized that I am Shiva.
Because I haven’t understood that you too are Shiva.
If the person standing before me is also Shiva, and I am Shiva, then how can I be superior to him?
How can Shiva be superior to Shiva?
That’s the entire point.
You may say, “This Shiva is realized, while that Shiva is not realized.”
But it makes no difference.
The essence of both is the same.
Sadhika: Consciousness.
Adi Suyash: Yes.
If you are truly realized, then for you, the entire universe is realized.
And those who are not realized perceive even Shiva as unrealized. They see Shiva as someone who fights and gets angry just as they do.
We see the world according to what we ourselves are.
A cat sees you as a cat.
A dog sees you as a dog.
Sadhika: (Laughs)
In the same way, when we are unenlightened, we see even Shiva as unenlightened.
We see Shiva sitting in meditation, but we have no idea what is actually happening within him.
We imagine that he too becomes angry like us, cries like us, reacts like us.
Sadhika: Because that’s how we are.
Adi Suyash: Exactly.
But one who is enlightened sees everything through the vision of enlightenment.
They see that the same consciousness that I am is taking all these different forms.
So there can never really be a superiority complex.
If such a complex arises, then you haven’t truly known yourself.
When you identify with Tara, realize what Tara’s true form is.
It is Śūnya.
First, identify with the mind—move beyond identification with the body and identify with the mind.
Then move beyond identification with the mind and identify with consciousness.
That is the goal.
Do you understand?
Sadhika: (Nods smilingly)
Good.
