Listen, O Devi, to this radiant wisdom. Whatever knowledge arises and shines forth is pure, belonging solely to the one Self—just as the luster of a jewel is its own, though the goldsmiths may call it gold by name. For so long, we have wandered through countless lives, endlessly confused by notions of duality and non-duality. Who, indeed, are these beings lost in such confusion? You have long been disturbed, your mind restless, troubled by unexamined thoughts. This confusion springs from the very nature of thought, but it disappears the moment true inquiry arises. When thought is examined through inquiry, it is instantly destroyed, revealing its true nonexistence. Thus, ignorance itself is not found within. Therefore, in truth, there is neither absence of inquiry, nor ignorance, nor bondage—nor even liberation. This world is pure consciousness, ever undisturbed. As long as you did not reflect upon this, you remained unawakened, agitated and confused like a restless ocean. But now, from this very moment, you are awakened, liberated, and discerning; the seed of residual impressions has fallen away from your mind. In the beginning, this spectacle—the drama of worldly existence—never truly arose. So, when, how, and by whom could any impression or tendency be experienced? When there is the complete absence of seer, seen, and seeing, one abides in the supreme, non-conceptual samadhi, established in one-pointedness. Yet, if in this state where the seed of impressions is exhausted, even a slight sprout arises in the heart, then gradually perceptions such as attraction and aversion will reappear. But this arising of worldly existence will then be uprooted, and your establishment in non-conceptual samadhi will become firm. Freed from the stain of conceptualization, spotless as the clear sky, you will continue for a while, moved only by the force of a few remaining actions of the senses and their causes. Just as, upon recognizing the nature of a dream, the dream body is seen as unreal, so too, even though it is experienced, this waking body is not real. When the dream is understood and its impressions exhausted, the dream body ceases; in the same way, the waking body ceases when its impressions are thinned out. At the end of the dream-body, which is formed by imagination, this waking body is regarded in the same way; and at the end of waking imagination, another subtle body arises. In a dream, when the seeds of impression are absent, deep sleep arises; in waking, when the seeds of impression are absent, liberation arises. The impression that exists in the liberated while living is not truly an impression at all; it is called pure existence, the common substratum of all being. The impression that remains in sleep is called deep sleep, and the impression that remains in waking is called dense delusion. Sleep in which impressions are exhausted is described as ‘the fourth’ state; this also occurs in waking, when the supreme state is realized. This state of living with exhausted impressions is not recognized by those who are not liberated; it is known as liberation while living. When the mind, free from impurities and severed from latent tendencies, attains the state of the subtle body, it is like water that, heated by fire, becomes vapor. The mind, having reached this subtle state through inner awakening, meets with perfected beings who dwell in other worlds and cycles of creation, but not with ordinary beings. When the sense of ‘I’ in you, through repeated practice, comes to rest, then—before your very eyes—the vastness of awareness will spontaneously arise. When the state of the subtle body is realized, you attain an eternal condition; then, by the light of another’s thought, your nature is further purified. Therefore, O blameless one, strive for the attenuation of latent impressions; when this becomes firmly established, you will become liberated while living. Until this pure moon of awareness is fully risen, keep the body here and observe other worlds. A body of flesh can only unite with another body of flesh, not with the mental body, in dealings and actions. All this has been stated according to direct experience and as it truly is; it is accomplished from childhood, not as a boon or a curse. Through repeated practice of deep awareness, this very body comes to possess a distaste for worldly tendencies, and truly, the mind itself becomes the body. And when this arises here, it is not perceived by anyone; people only see the body as dying. But this body neither dies nor truly lives; who indeed experiences death or life, which are but illusions of dream and imagination? Life and death, in this person of imagination, are just as unreal; they only appear so, my child, in this body. O goddess, this pure knowledge has been imparted to me by you. When it is heard, the fever of the world comes to rest. Here, who indeed assists, what kind of practice is there, or how does it occur? How does it gain strength, and what happens when it is perfected? Whatever is done, by whomever, whenever and however—without practice, it never attains success here. Contemplating that, speaking of that, awakening each other to that, and meditating with one’s breath absorbed in that—this, the wise know as the practice of Brahman. Those people whose sins have come to an end, who perform virtuous deeds, and who are free from the delusion of duality, are to be known as servants of Brahman. Those whose nights pass in contemplation of spiritual scriptures, whose latent tendencies have become thin, are established in the practice of Brahman. Those great souls who are dispassionate, whose inclination toward enjoyment has diminished, and who contemplate the state beyond becoming, are the blessed ones who triumph on earth. Those whose minds are adorned with the rising qualities of generosity and beauty, colored by the flavor of detachment, and overflowing with bliss—these are the supreme practitioners.