The Sound of Silence

This then, is the goal of our journey; to transcend one by one the grosser levels of existence until we reach the Supreme State where the mind ceases and the self shines in its infinite effulgence.

This sublime height of realization is beyond reason, beyond thought, beyond minding itself - how then can it be described? Here "the guru is dumb and the disciple is deaf." When the Buddha was asked by his disciple, "Does the Supreme Consciousness exist?" he was silent. The disciple asked, "Then does the Supreme Consciousness not exist?" Again, the Buddha remained silent.

A pious man once sent his two sons to learn spiritual knowledge from a preceptor. After a few years, they returned home, and the father questioned the two boys about what they had learned. He asked the older boy, "My child, you have studied all the scriptures. Tell me, what is the nature of the Supreme?" The boy began to recite many versed from the scriptures, but the father was not satisfied. He asked the younger child the same question. The boy remained silent and stood with his eyes cast down. No word escaped from his lips. The father said, "He has understood. It cannot be expressed in words."

Those who realize this infinite state of consciousness, the sages say, are like the people who saw a high wall and were curious to know what was on the other side. One of them, with much effort, climbed to the top and looked over and cried with wonder and joy, "Oh! Oh!" Suddenly, he leaped to the other side of the wall and disappeared. The others liked at each other wonderingly and shouted, "What is it over there?" But there was no answer from the other side, so another made the difficult climb, and he too gazed with blissful awe beyond the wall. In the same way, he cried with joy and jumped out of sight. In this way, one by one, they scaled the wall and disappeared in ecstasy.

No one can explain the bliss of transcending the mind and realizing the self. It has to be experienced for one-self.

Once a salt doll went to measure the depths of the ocean. It wanted to tell others how deep the water was. But this it could never do, for as soon as it got into the water, it melted. Now who was there to report the ocean's depth?