Cancer 4. People watching fireworks in the distance.
Faraway, tiny galaxies were exploding in the sky. He wondered if on each spark worlds full of histories and cultures were rising and fading in a manner of moments. It seemed to him that the nature of fire, ultimately, was to take the form of flowers – those vast pinwheel shapes floating through the universe, as well as these ephemeral fountains that bloomed into the night sky, one after the other, to mark the end of another festival.
Yes, he decided, the universe is a garden. Inhaling, he could smell its perfume.
Azoth Oracle
A child being schooled in the nature of the ego and how it creates suffering.
“The ego,” said Irnad, “is that which seems to connect with everything, but which ultimately connects with nothing but the illusions of its limited self. It is, at root, the source of all disconnection.”
It was he who set up all the educational systems for the young in Aab. The focus of all education was on inducing in students the awareness that each one is a star whose life is part of a galaxy, and who’s galaxy is a part of all other galaxies. “For mostly what we see when we look up, “said Irnad, “Is emptiness – the very thing that the mind fears. But the heart knows that this seeming emptiness is replete with connection, for each star shines, its light moving outward in all directions, all lights filling space and merging with each other at every point. How can there possibly be separation in such wholeness?”