Know Thyself: The Journey of You

• Are you ready to embark on a sacred journey of self discovery?

• One that usually takes a life time of knowledge and understanding?

You see...

Throughout the ages, the greatest sages and mystics have extolled a singular maxim as the supreme spiritual instruction, "Know Thyself."

Within these two words is encoded the entire journey of self-discovery...

A voyage through existential questioning, shedding of ego's delusions, and heroic penetration into the deepest grounds of one's true nature.

In the remote Himalayan peaks, an ancient monastery has carefully preserved and embodied the fullest teachings for enacting this sacred knowledge for over a thousand years.

Its wise gatekeepers possess the power to initiate sincere seekers into a progressive odyssey of ever-profounder self-inquiries and insights.

Few find their way through the treacherous mountain passes to encounter these self-realized masters.

Yet for those who arrive at the monastery's gateless entrance with genuine sincerity, they become ushered into a radical dismantling of their previously assumed identities and limited self-concepts.

Arjun was one such truth-seeker whose soul's calling led him through many trials and awakenings before fate delivered him to the monastery's karmic doorstep.

The young pilgrim carried an insatiable thirst to realize his most primordial essence beyond any ideological constructs or existential beliefs.

What he encountered within those hallowed walls would systematically deconstruct his experienced reality to its core foundations...

Part 1: The Wandering Seeker

Arjun was a young man plagued by an unshakeable feeling of dissatisfaction with his life.

Despite having a loving family, a well-paying job, and material comforts, he felt an ever-present void within that no worldly pleasure could fill.

The pursuit of money, status, and possessions left him feeling increasingly empty and unfulfilled.

One night, after a particularly soul-crushing day at his office job, Arjun found himself wandering the city streets aimlessly.

The neon lights and bustling crowds only amplified his sense of alienation and existential angst.

He felt like a ghost, disconnected from any deeper sense of meaning or purpose.

That's when a chance encounter changed the course of his life forever.

Arjun stumbled upon an old sadhu, a Hindu ascetic renunciant, sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk in quiet meditation.

There was a palpable aura of serenity and inner peace radiating from this man who had nothing but a tattered robe and begging bowl.

Entranced, Arjun sat across from the sadhu, and they locked eyes.

In that singular moment of profound connection,

Arjun experienced a glimpse of the stillness and equanimity he had been craving his whole life.

The sadhu did not speak, but his gentle smile conveyed an understanding that transcended words.

From that day on, Arjun's perspective shifted irreversibly.

He knew that the life he had been living, chasing empty pursuits, was a shadow existence compared to the radiant inner peace and freedom embodied by the sadhu.

He resigned from his job, said farewell to his bewildered loved ones, and embarked on a journey as a wandering seeker.

With only a backpack and the burning call to discover life's deeper truths, Arjun traveled the shores of India for many years, studying with acclaimed gurus and sages.

He experienced profound teachings and underwent harrowing ordeals.

But the elusive pure peace and enlightenment he glimpsed that fateful night remained maddeningly out of reach.

Until one day, after crossing treacherous mountain paths, Arjun came across a remote ancient monastery nestled deep in the Himalayan peaks.

There, he would encounter an old Zen master who would become his pivotal guide on the path to realization.

His real journey was only just beginning.

Part 2: The Gateless Gate

After an arduous trek through the remote Himalayan mountain range, Arjun finally arrived at the ancient monastery partially hidden amongst the craggy peaks.

His eyes grew wide at the sight of the grand wooden gates, intricately carved with mystical symbols and fierce deities.

As he approached, an old Zen monk with a long wispy gray beard emerged from a doorway, barring his entry with an outstretched arm.

Though Standing still as a statue, the monk's piercing gaze seemed to penetrate Arjun's very soul.

"State your reason for seeking entrance," the monk said in a gruff yet serene voice.

Arjun swallowed hard...

"Venerable one, I have wandered far and wide in search of the ultimate truth, the path to enlightenment and liberation from suffering."

The old monk stroked his beard slowly, appraising Arjun with his unblinking eyes.

"You have spiritual knowledge, that much is clear. But do you have an open mind, able to perceive wisdom from unconventional angles?"

With that, the monk posed his first koan:

"You know a precious gem when you see one. But what is more valuable - the gem itself, or the emptiness that allows it to be perceived?"

Arjun furrowed his brow, searching for a clever response that could prove his depth of understanding.

But each rationale that came to mind felt lacking, incomplete.

Seeing Arjun's struggle, the monk hit him squarely on the forehead with a twig, then entered a serene, unmoving meditation pose.

"That which can be conceptualized is already false," he stated matter-of-factly.

Arjun opened his mouth to respond but quickly realized there were no adequate words.

For once, his mind fell utterly empty and silent.

It was as if the koan had short-circuited his very process of thinking.

The old monk slowly rose from his pose with an appreciative nod.

Propounding more inscrutable koans, he continued pushing Arjun toward a state of "don't-know" where all conceptual reasoning proved futile.

"If you have one hand clapping, show me the sound it makes."

"What was the appearance of your original face before your parents were born?"

"Bringing an entrance through no-entrance - how will you accomplish this?"

With each mystifying riddle...

Arjun's grip on his intellectual knowledge slowly loosened until his mind reached a state of pure openness, like an empty window through which truth could finally enter.

Only then did the old gatekeeper monk allow Arjun to pass through the monastery gates, having shed the arcane philosopher's attachment to concepts.

He was finally ready to receive wisdom in its most pristine form.

Part 3: Silencing the Mind

After passing through the ancient monastery gates, Arjun was given humble living quarters and immersed in the daily rituals and practices of the Buddhist monks.

Though his mind had been pried open by the old gatekeeper's koans, he quickly discovered an entirely new challenge - quieting his ever-restless thoughts during meditation.

Each day before dawn, the monks would assemble in the candle-lit zendo hall and sit in lotus posture for hours of silent Zen meditation.

At first, the prospect of being still both physically and mentally felt utterly unnatural to Arjun after his years of seeking externally.

As soon as he would begin to meditate, his mind would race like a deranged monkey, leaping from one thought to the next - fantasizing, analyzing, remembering, judging, desiring.

He felt inundated by an endless tempest of mental chatter and inner turbulence. The profound insights and present-moment awareness he had briefly tasted now seemed inaccessibly distant.

Observing Arjun's plight, the old Zen master approached him one morning and firmly rapped his bamboo staff on a rock.

"Can you hear the sound of the valley stream flowing behind the monastery?" the master asked in a hushed voice.

Arjun nodded impatiently, desperate for a solution to his unruly mind.

The master struck the rock again.

"And can you hear this precise sound?"

Again, Arjun nodded hesitantly.

With uncanny stillness, the master raised one finger.

Arjun leaned in with rapt attention, his thoughts momentarily suspended.

"Can you hear this?" the master asked finally.

Then without waiting for a reply, he explained,

"Your thoughts are like that stream - a surface disturbance.

You've been so preoccupied with that turbulence that you've missed the great underlying silence just as this finger precedes sound."

Resting one hand on Arjun's heart and the other on his abdomen, the master instructed him in basic meditation on the breath.

"Allow your mind to grow calm and centered like still waters. Then you'll hear the profound silence within."

Over the next weeks and months, Arjun practiced diligently focusing his attention on the gentle movements of his breathing - the physical sensation of his abdomen expanding and contracting.

Whenever his mind would invariably get lured away by thoughts, he'd simply acknowledge them and return to experiencing the breath.

Slowly but surely, the incessant stream of thoughts, feelings, and fantasies began to lose its hypnotic grip over his consciousness.

Like clouds passing through a vast sky, the mental vortex opened up into radiant gaps of pure presence and tranquility.

With a strengthened muscle of mindfulness, Arjun's meditation practice allowed him to rest in that subset underlying awareness - not clinging to thoughts or judging them, but simply being an impartial observer.

Finally, he could listen to the deepest silence that the master had pointed him towards.

Part 4: The Mirror of Self

As Arjun diligently applied himself to his meditation practice over the following years, his mind grew increasingly settled and his awareness progressively more refined.

Yet he couldn't shake a persistent feeling that he was still being obstructed from touching the highest truth by an elusive veil of delusion.

During one particularly deep meditation session, he made a breakthrough into radical self-inquiry and honesty.

It was as if his consciousness became a mirror, reflecting back with vivid clarity the habitual patterns, distorted beliefs, and deep-seated attachments that had been driving his existence.

He saw how his constant chase for validation and approval from others was rooted in a core feeling of insecurity and not being enough.

So much of his previous spiritual seeking had actually been an ego-driven quest to accrue spiritual accomplishments to bolster his sense of self-worth.

Arjun witnessed the harsh inner critic that had fostered crippling self-doubt and perfectionism throughout his life.

He observed the deep-seated fear of his own mortality and existential insignificance that lurked beneath his usual bravado.

Most glaringly, he perceived the profound grasping and clinging to a separate, deficient self - the relentless stream of "I, me, mine" that had generated so much suffering through intense cravings, aversions, and attachments.

He saw how this ego consciousness was like a turbulent whirlpool of thought that could never find true peace or belonging.

As these delusional knots of self-obsession, projection, and mental affliction became stark in his awareness, Arjun felt a profound weight of suffering and sorrow.

He had to resist the knee-jerk reaction to recoil or repress what he was seeing.

With the old master's guidance, he learned to open with courageous vulnerability to the raw experience of existential anxiety and insecurity that the separate self-sense was rooted in.

Only by shining an honest light of awareness on the depths of his psyche's shadowy areas could Arjun begin to untangle the mind-made prison of confusion and unhappiness he had been trapped in.

Like clearing the clouds from a brilliant sunrise, he could sense the radiant clarity, warmth, and boundless freedom of his true nature shining through the rifts of self-delusion.

The old master assured him that by continuing to cultivate this unflinching self-observation and honesty, Arjun would inevitably out his way through the clouds of ego-grasping into the vast open sky of what he truly was.

Only truth could ultimately dissolve the bondage of illusion.

Part 5: The Garden of Compassion

After the searingly honest yet liberating mirror of self-inquiry, Arjun felt raw and vulnerable, like he had molted an outermost layer of his psyche.

The old Zen master could sense he needed to take his practice in a new direction to integrate his deepening insights.

One morning, the master gently woke Arjun before dawn and led him outside to the monastery's ancestral garden.

By the pale light of the crescent moon, Arjun could make out the outlines of ancient bonsai trees, bamboo groves, and rows of neatly tended vegetable plots.

"You have learned to turn your gaze inwardly to witness the nature of your own mind," the master said, handing Arjun a wooden bucket and gardening tools.

"Now you must learn to turn that attentiveness outwardly with nurturing care and compassion for all living beings."

Under the master's watchful guidance, Arjun spent the next months tending to all aspects of the sacred garden - pruning hedges, turning soil, pulling weeds, planting seeds.

Yet this was no ordinary gardening.

The master coached him to bring an open presence and gentle tenderness to every movement and action.

When watering the flowerbeds, Arjun learned to intimately attune to each seedling's needs rather than rather than habitually watering.

Pruning the ancient bonsai trees required developing an intuitive feel for their unique patterns of becoming.

Even weeding demanded developing a non-judgmental allowing before skilling removing unwanted growths.

Gradually, Arjun's heart opened to the wisdom of seeing all lifeforms as sacred, nurturing them with the same centered care as he did his own meditation practice.

His typical human bias melted into a more expansive perspective that embraced all flora and fauna as partners in a grand co-arising dance.

Then one autumn morning, as Arjun contentedly tended the fall pumpkin harvest, something profound shifted in his perception.

He suddenly felt a living continuum between the life-force pulsing through the vines, his own breath rhythms, and the primordial throb of the entire Earth beneath him.

The boundaries between everything blurred into a shimmering display of interbeing.

In that transcendent moment, Arjun experienced the garden, the monastery, and all phenomena as a holistic lila - a joyful cosmic play of forces and forms perpetually flowing into one another.

His rigid sense of being a separate, deficient self utterly collapsed into an oceanic feeling of oneness without limitations.

When the old master found Arjun sitting reverently among the pumpkins later, tears of awakened compassion were streaming down his face.

Through nurturing all life around him with tenderness, he had realized his deepest belonging to the ultimate unbounded life-stream.

From that day forward, Arjun met every circumstance and experience with a caring presence and deference, having glimpsed the sacred singularity within seeming multiplicity.

He had come to taste true compassion's bliss.

Part 6: Dancing with Demons

Having experienced profound breakthroughs into the depths of his true nature through uncompromising self-inquiry and the heart-opening practice of compassion, Arjun felt he was nearing the culmination of his spiritual journey.

A newfound serenity and acceptance had arisen from realizing his intrinsic wholeness and interconnection with all of life.

However, Arjun's old familiar inner "demons" had other plans.

It began with a feeling of restlessness and disquiet during meditation.

Invasive thoughts cast doubts on his realizations:

"Was it all just a grand delusion?"

"How can I be sure of anything?"

From the fertile soil of doubt sprouted twisted vines of resentment, anger, and judgment directed both inwards and outwards.

Soon, storms of intense cravings, aversions, and attachments were raging unchecked through Arjun's psyche. Desire and lust tormented his body.

Furious inner outbursts laid waste to his hard-won equanimity.

He was shocked at the vitriol of the self-hatred, self-aggrandizement, and philosophical skepticism that had awoken like demons from the depths of his subconscious.

With each attempt to forcibly banish these negative energies and regain his previous transcendent view, Arjun only fell into deeper enmeshment with the chaotic thought-tides.

He began questioning his practice, his path, and whether the light of profound insight he'd glimpsed could ever be regained.

Desperate, he sought counsel from the old Zen master who had guided him this far.

Rather than dispensing wisdom, the master simply smiled slightly and said...

"My dear Arjun, you must learn to dance with the demons until the dance concludes of its own accord."

The master explained that these intense cloudbursts of anger, cravings, judgments, and doubts were simply formations in consciousness - inevitable arisings to be experienced with non-judgmental awareness rather than to be eliminated or taken as self-definition.

"If you resist and thrash against them, you only empower these 'demons' with more solidity.

But if you stop struggling and simply allow them to arise, play themselves out, and then pass away, you take away their illusory dominance."

Over the next weeks, Arjun diligently applied himself to simply observing the invasive negative energies with a stance of open acceptance and letting be.

Rather than Tudor to fix or change them, he learned to bear witness to their ephemeral appearance and dissolution with patience and equanimity.

Anger was anger.

Cravings were cravings.

Doubt was doubt.

None were more or less than guests in the vast space of awareness arising, performing for a while, and inevitably passing away.

As Arjun stopped solidifying them through aversion and struggle, the demons lost their compelling, seductive power.

He had found the secret balance of neither indulging them nor trying to vanquish them - simply allowing their natural presence without attachment or fixation.

In this way, Arjun compassionately re-integrated these turns of his humanity rather than transcending them through spiritual bypass.

With a stance of non-dual receptivity, he made peace with being the seamless mirror that reflected both illumination and darkness, wholeness and brokenness.

Part 7: One Flame, Many Lights

After many years immersed in the Buddhist teachings and intensive practices at the ancient Himalayan monastery, Arjun felt he had integrated profound insights into the nature of consciousness and reality.

The wisdom of non-dual awareness - seeing through the illusion of separation into the unity of all things - had become his direct lived experience.

Yet the old Zen master could sense a lingering trace of rigid philosophic attachment threatening to solidify into a new form of dogma.

To uproot this final obscuration, the master urged Arjun to expand his perspective through studying with mystic adepts from diverse spiritual traditions who had realized that same essential truth through very different paths.

Thus began an eye-opening journey for Arjun, meeting enlightened mystics from various lineages - Hindu yogis, Sufi dervishes, Christian monastics, Taoist sages, and Indigenous shamans.

While the outer forms of their practices and teachings differed vastly, each pointed toward that same unqualifiable ground of being that Arjun had glimpsed.

With the Hindu yogis, he experienced the pure unbounded awareness that underlies the perpetual rising and passing away of all phenomena.

The yogis called this the "witness consciousness" - the imperturbable void upon which the dream-like world appears.

The Sufi mystics revealed the personal face of that ultimate ground, describing it as an all-encompassing love whose presence perfumed the entire manifest reality.

They invited Arjun to surrender in rapturous devotional love to this divine source of all.

The Christian monastics spoke of this unborn, undying essence as the eternal "Christ consciousness" - a logos of truth indwelling all sentient beings.

To realize it was to awaken to one's true identity in God.

The philosophical Taoists expressed it as the nameless, ineffable Tao which eternally gave birth to the dance of yin and yang, being and non-being.

Their teachings flowed like a river course back to the primal source.

And the earth-honoring Indigenous shamans connected Arjun to the living intelligence and spirit woven through all of nature as a sublime, sacred consciousness.

For them, realizing this was to become re-integrated with the ancient mythic soul of the animate cosmos.

While the expressions, names, and paths differed wildly across these traditions, Arjun came to recognize the one truth each was pointing toward - a single radiant essence from which the entire diversity of manifestation flowered yet always remained undivided.

In the end, all accusations of duality or otherness revealed themselves as illusory veils obscuring this unborn, unformed, all-pervasive ground of primordial freedom.

The mystic's role in each tradition was simply to reawaken to one's intrinsic unity with it through different skillful means.

No longer confined to any single approach, Arjun's vision expanded to embrace all genuine paths that shed light on the eternal source from diverse angles.

Like rays of sunlight refracted through a multifaceted crystal, they finally coalesced in his understanding as a unified whole - a single radiant brilliance from which all illuminations and all teachings sprang.

Part 8: Emptiness and Form

After being initiated into the essential non-dual truth across multiple wisdom traditions, Arjun realized his spiritual journey had reached a profound culmination point.

The sacred scriptures, methods, rituals, and symbols - though skillful means to point toward the ultimate - had become like thousands of fingers pointing to the one radiant moon.

In moments of crystalline clarity, all conceptual overlays dissolved, and Arjun rested in the sheer seamlessness of pure, pristine awareness.

All distinctions between self and other, object and subject, Being and non-Being evaporated into the vast ocean of primordial wholeness.

There was nowhere for the separate self to reside - only the eternal suchness of reality's intrinsic perfection.

Yet Arjun came to realize that completely merging into and identifying solely with this profound, blissful, all-encompassing emptiness would be to mistake the finger for the moon.

The Absolute and the manifest world of form were not separate polarities, but coordinated dance partners in an unbroken whole.

Yes, all compounded phenomena - including his own body, thoughts and identity - were utterly empty of any fixed, independent existence when seen with complete wisdom.

But this ultimate void was no mere vacuity.

It was a radiant, bright, fertile potentiality shimmering with creative energy and inexhaustible display.

The old master pointed out that emptiness and form were simply perspectives - two aspects of the very same unified field.

Just as the self-luminous sky is "empty" of any concreteness yet appears co-emergently full with clouds, the single indivisible awareness displayed itself as the majestic diversity of the entire phenomenal universe.

Where Arjun had previously recoiled from form and attachment, he now saw the non-dual perfection of all arising expressions.

The vast morphing patterns of rivers and mountains, weather systems and celestial motions, the vast web of interdependent ecological relations, as well as the ceaseless arising and passing of thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations.

Every sight, sound, smell, taste, and tactile dance was the vibrant light-play of that very source - an unfolding revelation of creative potentiality springing forth from its infinite depths.

To deny or devalue this was to only see half the picture.

With the transcendence of all agonizing subject-object duality, all judgments melted away into a care-free allowing of each shimmering appearance as perfect embodiments of the whole.

A childlike sense of wonder arose as Arjun experienced deeply and intimately the miraculous display - as the very display itself.

No longer encumbered by any ascetic denial of the world, Arjun saw that to embrace the emptiness of all forms is to join in celebration of reality's resplendent beauty and creative outpouring.

He had come full circle, grateful to existence itself.

Through the eyes of non-dual wisdom, all arising was playful glee manifesting with itself as the ceaseless pulsation and dance between the ultimate and the innumerable realms of experience.

What had ever compelled any resistance or renunciation?

The sage simply delighted in the non-separation of emptiness and form.

Part 9: The Silent Sermon

After decades learning and integrating the most profound spiritual teachings from across the world's contemplative traditions, Arjun had touched the heights of realization.

He had tasted the ineffable singularity that transcended yet included all manifest domains - an indivisible oneness that was at once both the radiant emptiness and the boundless flourish of forms.

Yet on a warm spring morning, as Arjun sat in ceremonial stillness with his fellow monastics awaiting one final discourse from the ancient Zen master, something unexpected occurred that obliterated any lingering notions of attainment or spiritual accomplishment.

The master entered slowly, favoring his cane more with each passing year.

He settled onto his cushion with an audible groan as the hushed assembly of monks focused their rapt attention.

They knew this could well be the master's final profound teaching before leaving his physical form.

With a piercing gaze that seemed to absorb every heart-mind into its depths, the master slowly, deliberately reached down and plucked a small wildflower growing between the floorboards.

He raised it before him with a subtle smile playing across his weathered face.

The entire hall held its collective breath as the master gently twirled the blossom between his thumb and forefinger.

The flower's vibrant white and purple petals seemed to radiate with sacred significance, like the condensed essence of all existence captured in this single living bloom.

In that suspended moment, a transmission far beyond words poured forth from the master's mere gesture with the flower.

A revelation of such intensity that Arjun's conceptual mind shattered like a stone hitting a still pond.

Every ossified philosophic construct, every model of the "absolute" and the "relative," every subtle trace of attainment or ignorance, dissolved fully into that transcendent instant.

For Arjun, the entirety of the cosmos contracted into this one revolving flower glistening with dew in the morning sunlight.

He merged into its white and purple folds, tasting its tender aliveness, feeling its roots anchored in the earth, sensing the vast toil of minerals, microbes, decaying matter, rainfall, and sunlight coalescing into this singular resplendent point.

At the same moment, that solitary bloom sprawled outwards into the very fabric of existence itself - a fleeting, impermanent spark that somehow contained the totality.

Arjun realized with a shattering clarity that this flower, this moment, was no mere tiny thing.

It was the entire inconceivable play of emptiness and form, ungraspable yet vividly manifest right here, right now with sensational simplicity.

The old master spoke not a word, continuing to silently turn the blossom before the dumbstruck assembly.

No teaching could be imparted, for in that spacious pause, mind wizened to touch the vast indivisibility before language arose to separate and divide it into concepts, narratives, or viewpoints.

Time seemed to stop as Arjun hovered in a state of pure perception prior to subject or object - just this flower blossoming as the wholeness of reality endlessly unfolding in pristine awareness.

He was that very flowering, vividly unobscured.

Then the master slowly raised his robe and placed the delicate bloom inside, holding his hands together prayerfully as if enshrining the entire universe in a consecrated space.

With that iconic gesture, the world snapped back into focus, and Arjun's conceptual consciousness reawakened with a profound unintegrated view.

From that timeless, transparent glimpse, all remaining contractions into rigidity, idea, or belief had dissolved like the mist before the noonday sun.

Radical presence alone remained - nothing other than this seamless dynamism presenting itself eternally fresh.

Gazing around at his monastery brothers with gentle tearful eyes, Arjun realized the master's final silent flowered gesture had revealed the surest essence of wisdom.

Life itself ceaselessly flowering forth into infinite display beyond the reach of all words and philosophies.

Part 10: Returning Home

After the silent sermon of the flowered gesture shattered the final veils, Arjun's spiritual work at the ancient monastery had reached its completion.

The old Zen master could see that this former seeker had realized the highest truth - the egoless tracking of reality just as it is in each moment, embracing all forms while abiding in the perfection of emptiness.

While staying on as an enlightened monastic vehicle would be one path forward, the master knew Arjun's destiny lay elsewhere.

With great esteem, the master addressed him one last time before the entire sangha assembly:

"My spiritual friend, you have realized the unborn, unconditioned nature that pervades and transcends all experience.

You have integrated the wisdom of boundless emptiness and the wisdom of its ceaseless phenomenal display.

There is nothing further to attain, nothing to accomplish.

Yet this realization must now be actualized as your very life, not merely inwardly comprehended.

The world sorely needs loving guides who can embody profound awakenings in the midst of its gorgeous sufferings.

Return to the realm of manifold forms as a lantern carrying this light of wisdom and freedom."

With great gratitude, Arjun prepared to depart the monastery after bestowing final venerations.

He gathered only a few humble possessions - his tattered robe, begging bowl, and walking staff.

In the simplicity of spiritual mendicancy was the greatest wealth and autonomy.

As Arjun passed through the ancient gateless gates one last time, descending into the lush green valleys beyond the Himalayas, he felt an overwhelming compassion for all beings still ensnared in delusion, aversion, and suffering.

He vowed to wander as a masterless guide, directing any sincere seeker toward the pathless path of radical presence.

Over the subsequent years, Arjun meandered across India and neighboring lands, homeless but intimately at home wherever he miraculously found himself.

His mere presence emanated a disarming peace, inscrutable joy, and unconditional love towards every being and circumstance.

Some encountered him sitting silently under a tree, emanating a palpable serenity.

For others, glimpsing his radiant face in a bustling market crowd sparked an indelible transmission before he disappeared like a mirage.

Wherever he wandered, this sage cast a subtle wake of jolting awakenings, if only for brief startling instants.

Arjun held no public teachings, gathered no disciples, built no empire.

Yet he touched innumerable lives simply through the untrammeled freedom of his pure presence as a living bodily representation of supreme realization.

For those with eyes to see, just witnessing this irreverent vagabond dance through the landscapes of old age, sickness, poverty, and death with unshakeable ease was teaching enough.

The sage had realized the deathless nature that outshone all conditions through his every mindful footstep, breath, and gesture.

To meet him was to encounter living wisdom personified.

In this way, Arjun's journey had taken him full circle, returning to the bustling seamless world of sensory experience, yet now perceived through the unwavering eyes of enlightenment.

From terrifying demons, these raging currents of pleasure and pain, birth and death, fortune and failure had transfigured into none other than the grand harmonic play of emptiness dancing as-is in pristine immediacy.

No longer confined to the monastery walls, Arjun's very existence became a supreme transmission of uncompromised awakening amidst the riotous blessings and catastrophes of the world's drama.

By embodying each moment in totality, he unleashed its potential as a portal revealing the whole of the absolute and relative at once.

It was the highest teaching – inseparable wisdom and compassionate action, beyond acceptance or rejection, radiantly revealing one taste in all multiplicities until Arjun's final breath.

In surrendering completely to the great circle of becoming, he realized his undying essence as the key that unlocked the door to everywhere, at all times.

He was the embodiment of what it is to truly "Know Thyself".

The Conclusion

After decades immersed in the monastery's progressive unfoldings into absolute self-knowledge, Arjun fully embodied the supreme realization that his own being was not separate from the grand continuum of existence itself.

The sage had realized the truth of "Know Thyself" in its blinding fullness.

To know oneself completely is to know the seamless unity of all phenomena arising as vibrantly apparent display from, by and as one's fundamental awareness-emptiness nature.

With the great mirror of self-delusion shattered, Arjun wandered freely as a luminous signal-fire of this timeless wisdom for anyone blessed to encounter his presence.

There were no teachings to impart, as the enlightened master simply represented a perfected embodiment awakening to itself in each moment without the obstructions of subject or object.

To behold Arjun was to perceive one's own originally unborn face shining back through the clarity of his equanimous eyes and gentle affirming smile.

The ancient knowledge "Know Thyself" revealed its living quintessence through this humble sage whose every mindful footstep and breath enacted the non-dual dance of absolute and relative truth inseparably arisen.

In such rare beings graced by true self-realization is the eternal instruction made whole - that each apparent individual's most core essence ultimately abides as none other than the unified field of reality experiencing its own gestural unfurling as all perceivable phenomena.

To know thyself in totality is to relinquish the dream of separation and witness one's own most intimate identity miraculously manifesting as the entire universe.