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Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 4: Sthiti-Prakarana (On Ontology or Existence). Chapter 4 - Treating of the Germ of Existence
Vasistha said: It is the overthrow of the battery of the senses, that supplies us with a bridge over the ocean of the world; there is no other act, whereby we may cross over it 1.
Acquaintance with the Śāstras, association with the good and wise, and practice of the virtues, are the means whereby the rational and self-controlled man, may come to know the absolute negation of the visible.
I have 'thus told you, O handsome Rāma! of the causes of the appearance and disappearance of the creation, resembling the heaving and resting of the waves of the sea of the world.
There is no need of a long discourse to tell you that, the mind is the germ of the arbour of acts, and this germ being nipped in the beginning, prevents the growth of the tree, and frustrates the doing of acts, which are the fruits thereof.
The mind is all 2; therefore it is, that by the healing of your heart and mind, you can cure all the troubles and diseases, you may incur in the world.
The minds of men are ever troubled, with their thoughts of the world and bodily actions; but these being deadened and defunct, we see neither the body nor the outer world.
The negation of the outer world, and the suppression of the inner thoughts, serve to curb the demon of the mind, by practice of self abnegation for a long period of time.
It is possible to heal the inward disease of the internal mind, by administration of this best and only medicine of negation of the external world. 3
It is because of its thoughts, that the mind is subjected to the errors of its birth and death; and to those of its being bound to or liberated from, the bonds of the body and this world.
The mind being deluded by its thoughts, sees the worlds shining before it; as a man sees in his delusion, the imaginary city of the Gandharvas, drawn before him in empty air.
All these visible worlds consist in the mind, wherein they seem to exist as the fragrance of the air, consists in the cluster of flowers containing the essence.
The little particle of the mind contains the world, as a small grain of sesame contains the oil, and as an attribute is contained in its subject, and a property abiding in the substance.
The world abides in the mind in the same manner, as the sun-beams abide in the sun, and as brightness consists in the light, and as the heat is contained in fire.
The mind is the reservoir of the worlds, as the snow is the receptacle of coldness. It is the substratum of all existence, as the sky is that of emptiness, and as velocity is inherent in the wind.
Therefore the mind is the same with the world, and the world is identic with the mind; owing to their intimate and inseparable connection with one another. The world however is lost by the loss of the mind; but the mind is not lost by destruction of the world. 4
Footnotes
1. To the other shore of truth.
2. The agent of all actions
3. Ignoring the outer world, is the only way to restore the peace of the mind.
4. Because the thoughts thereof are imprinted in the mind.
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