Two doors to infinity

Sage Ashtavakra once guided King Janak, who was deeply troubled by the truth of his dreams, restless to know whether his experiences were real or illusory. Ashtavakra reminded him of the three states that every human being cycles through each day - sleeping, dreaming and waking. Yet, instead of treating these as fixed realities, the sage urged King Janak to see them as passageways, conduits, not destinations.

'You are not the dream, nor the sleeper, nor even the one who wakes,' he said gently. 'You are the consciousness that flows through all these states.' A concept from Advait Vedant, this consciousness, the state of Turiya, when strengthened, cannot be shaken by any external conditions. It is this strength of consciousness that makes us invulnerable to life's turbulence. Buddhism offers another lens - Shunyata, beyond dualities, beyond existence/non-existence.

Shunyata urges us to search for nothingness within experiences of our existence. It is a fertile space, where all forms appear, dissolve and reappear, without ever binding the essence. While Turiya whispers of the fullness beneath all the states, encouraging us to fortify the essence flowing through states of our daily being, shunyata nudges us towards emptiness. It tells us, 'There is nothing solid to cling to, no essence to grasp; let go, and discover the vastness that remains.' One reaffirms the presence of the essence and the other dissolves the illusion of substance. The Buddhist emptiness and the Vedantic fullness appear as opposites - yet both are the doors to the same room of infinity. We learn not merely to pass through our states of being but to rise above them - untouched, unshaken and deeply alive.