There was once a motionless golden being called Brahman. With a big roar, he suddenly sprang into action. This great golden being took out tiny pieces of gold from himself, moulded them into various shapes and moved them like puppets, enacting a drama. As one puppet hit another, the latter puppet became angry at the former puppet. The great golden being made puppets like and hate other puppets and engage in various actions with others.
He made some fair rules for the drama. Every puppet received equal and opposite reactions for its actions towards other puppets. As he made puppets see others and wish for several things, he eventually gave them what they wished for, after they helped enough in fulfilling the wishes of other puppets. The rules made the drama engaging, self-sufficient, long and lively.
He occasionally crushed a puppet and made a puppet of another shape with the material and changed its role in the drama. But he lent some continuity to the drama by enabling that puppet to still get equal reactions to its previous actions and make it follow its previous desires even without realizing it. However, he made the puppets unaware of the continuation and made them very very scared of being crushed.
He occasionally made a rare puppet finally not fear being crushed, not wish for this or that, do all its actions with no like or dislike to other puppets or to actions themselves. He then “freed” it from the drama - he mixed in himself the gold that made the puppet.
He made some puppets curious to understand the whole drama. After they contemplated enough, he even made some “see” everything that happened! But he made them misunderstand some details.
Someone thought the original motionless being represented the pristine state that one should strive to merge into. He did not realize that motionless golden being and animated great golden being were one and the same. Even if one merged into the motionless golden being, that being would oneday spring into action and become the animated great golden being!
There were multiple theories on whether a puppet could ever merge in the animated great golden being, whether the puppet would then become a “part” or “full”. There came to be varying theories on the relationship and superiority of motionless golden being and the animated great golden being. There were also theories on how the great being suddenly sprang into action from the motionless Brahman, i.e. what made him do that. Some considered the great being impermanent and Brahman permanent. They did not realize that both were the same. It was a cycle - the great being was sometimes animated and sometimes his animation withdrew and he remained motionless over an extended period. Both were the same being.
The great golden being made some puppets speak eloquently about above theories and claim all-knowingly, “whatever I am doing is done by the great being and not by me”. Yet, by pulling invisible strings, great being made them feel internally that they were doing everything! He made them do terrible things to others with vengeance and he made them pay for it. He kept remaking them in different forms in the drama and made them experience various things.
One wise puppet came along and said, “forget all conflicting theories. What matters, O fellow puppets, is to overcome your likes, dislikes, fears etc and participate in the drama without getting carried away. Whether you merge in in animated great golden being or motionless golden being, whether you become part or full upon merging, is irrelevant now. What matters now is to work on your individual conditioning and overcome it.”
The great golden being of course made that “wise” puppet speak those words. He pulled the invisible strings to influence various puppets variously by those words!
