‘Welcome to your Universe, Zara,’ a voice called out from yonder, far beyond the mustard field, at a distance of an elephant’s day-long march, where the river flowed by in glorious majesty.
Zara looked up, stretched out her arms to the world, and smiled.
And then, she stepped out into the field, one foot forward, twirling in the breeze. Twirling . . . twirling . . . twirling . . . when, all of a sudden, the west wind came down on her in one giant swoop, wrapping herself around Zara in a tight embrace in clockwork motion, first, gently and then, gathering pace with the force of a gale. And the earth at her feet merged with the mustard yellow and green, with the muddy brown of the river, with the dazzle and glitter of the steel and glass and sandstone and dark granite, with the blue of the sky above, with the hues of the rainbow, stretching into a sea of white, before eventually plunging into the dark ocean of a full-blown tornado, heartlessly cold, uprooting Zara from the ground and tossing her heavenwards.
And in that churning, Zara started losing control of her sense of self, rapidly shedding height from a staff long, four arms in length, to an arm’s measure, to a foot long, to fourteen times smaller, the size of a thumb, to ten times still smaller, the size of a barley corn, to that of a mustard seed, to the point of a human hair, shrinking further to a particle of dust, where she ceased to exist in visible light, to ten nanometres in size, and then, down to an atom, super condensing at 454 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, where she began to lose control of her senses, mind, intellect, and ego. There, her eyes could not see, her mind could not grasp, her deathless self had neither colour nor creed, neither eyes nor ears, neither hands nor feet nor mouth.
And so, in the flutter of an eyelid, Zara was reduced to Z.E.R.O., at which point, she let out a primordial scream: ‘I aaaaaaaaaam Nothing!’
And that, indeed, was the moment when her self became infinite in the great, and in the small, everlasting and changeless, the source of life, unborn, without the body and mind.
And her voice, trapped in the monster whirlwind, resonated, ‘Nothing . . . nothing . . . nothing . . . othing . . . a thing . . . a thing . . . a Thing . . .’
And even as the echo drowned, a deep sonorous voice emerged from within the hollow of the gale:
‘Where there is Nothing, Zara, there is always Something.’
And with that, the whirlwind unfurled in rapid anti-clockwise motion, unwinding Zara at the speed of thought.
And Zara heard the voice of darkness say:
From Nothing arises Consciousness . . .
That arousal is Movement
This Movement is Reverberation
That Reverberation is Energy
This Energy is Power
That Power is the Basis of Attraction
This Attraction is the Basis of all Creation
That Creation is the Reverberation of Something
That appears as Nothing
This Nothing is the Whole
That Whole is symbolised by the Dot
(Whereupon Zara reappeared in visible light within the funnel of the whirlwind to the point of a particle of dust, blue in colour spinning on its own axis.)
This Dot is the manifestation of Nothing
That, indeed, is the Self that is Centred on and Complete in Itself
This Dot that appears as Nothing is Virtual Reality
The Consciousness of this Dot, which is the Self, is Self-Consciousness
That Self-Consciousness is the Ego
This Ego is Mine
That that is Mine belongs to Me
This Me is what the Self perceives of Me
That that the Self perceives of Me Within is what the Self sees of Me.
This Self indeed is that Self
That Self sees this Self with the Eye
This Eye sees that Self with the Inner Eye
That Inner Eye is I
This I is the Quantification of Zero
That Quantification is also the first known Quantity
This Quantity of I is an Idea
(Whereupon a second Dot appeared in the dim light of the funnel, green in colour, each dot now the size of a point of a hair, spinning on its own axis and orbiting one another.)
That Idea is the Eternal Nature of I
This Nature in its Original State is Instinct
That Instinct leads to Individuality
This Individuality results in Identity
That Identity creates the Image
This Image is the Icon
That Icon leads to You
This You is Universal
That Universal is Knowledge
This Knowledge of I resides in You
That Knowledge is what I Need
This Need is what IOU
That that IOU is the Trinity of Being
This Trinity is represented by this I, in my original state of being that resides in what appears as nothing that reverberates as the Idea of individuality that gives me the identity that creates the image that is the icon that is You that is Complete in itself Therefore, IOU in the culmination of the Self in You
That indeed is the Beginning and this also is the End
This is the Spirit that created the Son out of the Father
That Spirit is the Basis of Faith
This is Therefore That
That Therefore is I Am
This I Am is what You are
That Therefore, is what IOU
That that IOU is the culmination of this Self in that You, making for a Virtuous Circle
(Upon which the two Dots were joined by Zara’s Image as a third Dot, red in colour, each dot now the size of a mustard seed spinning on its own axis and orbiting one another in a virtuous circle within the funnel.)
This Circle reverberates into bigger and bigger circles centred on the Dot
That Dot is I
This Circle is, therefore, the Reverberation of the I in You
That IOU is the manifestation of the Idea that is I, and that Idea is Nothing, rendering Myself Zero till it becomes You
This You is only a Virtual Manifestation of that I manifested in the Idea
That You cannot be proven otherwise but for the Real I that by itself appears as Nothing
This is also to say in Real, IOU Nothing
That, indeed, is the basis of Transaction
This is also to say that that Real is Void
That is also to say that that Virtual, too, is Void
This is to say that in Virtual Reality what appears to be Real is also Virtual
That is to say that as in the Real, so in Virtual Reality, IOU Nothing
This is to say that when IOU Nothing, I am Free
This Freedom, therefore, is Virtual Reality
That Freedom is also Real because this Me that is Virtual is also that Me that is Real
This is because I cannot exist in reality just by Myself and need to Create You, that is virtual Me
That is the reason that I need to live in Virtual Reality
This makes Me live in You
That alone, Therefore, is the Basis of Relationship
This Relationship is the first Virtuous Cycle that grows out of I in You and encompasses the Universe in larger and larger Reverberations from Family to Community to Society to Nation to Commonwealth to Planet to the Solar System to the Galaxy to the Universe to the Cosmos
(And with that, the funnel formed by the whirlwind began to disintegrate, refracting into the colours of the rainbow.)
That really is the Game
And in this Game, IOU Nothing
Therefore, there is no this Winner and that Loser
This Game is Tied and
That Tie is Love All.
‘That, Zaru, is the essence of life,’ the west wind whispered as Zara began to regain control of herself.