So what then is the purpose of embodiment?

I don’t think there is a purpose. But the fact remains that when no thing is manifested there is no thing to be conscious of. Sort of like deep sleep. You realize its dark calmness only after you slip into a dream (and are aware of that transition) or after you wake up.

Another factor that repeatedly dawns on me is God’s sudden realization of his absolute solitary existence — it’s a shock that can explode into universes. It also explains why love is such an important “thing”. In other words, God does not want to be alone. Of course, that bring us back to the question where does that dense something that big banged come from, when there is no thing to begin with.

Well, Hindus say that Maya is inscrutable. What they mean, I guess, is that it’s incomprehensible how can an initial though appear when there’s nothing that thinks, not even thinking as such. I must concur, because to my human mind it certainly is a mystery, yet it is, too, knowable and makes perfect sense.

So, the actual process of emergence, or transition from pure existence to apparent multiplicity, that initial split, that “snap of fingers” may forever remain unexplainable. Then again, it also appears that it actually never happened. Yet, at the same time, what we perceive is hard to deny and is not false, just an illusion. Hence the Buddhist saying, “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.”

Whether you are (physically) a human being, a fish, a spider, or a moth, physicality of life is pretty horrid, with Nature “red in tooth and claw” as Tennyson put it.

It’s funny you mention spider and moth. Once I observed a spider in a corner near my desk. It was the kind of our local “mini-tarantula”. Probably he was attracted by the lamp light, which also attracted a moth. The moth was flying around and bumping into the bulb, then she landed several inches from the spider. After a while she lifted off, very briefly checked/touched the spider, returned to her previous location, and, finally, flew right under the him. I was like O_O. The moth literally offered herself to spider — no fight, nothing, she was sitting there letting the spider kill her.

What I want to say is that perception of horridness of physicality of life varies a lot. Then again, maybe the moth was fed up by being a moth. But I suspect, that’s just my human interpretation.

Anyway, physicality of life may seem horrid from the sole perspective of human mind. When you consider that what we know as “our consciousness” equals the consciousness of God, it’s God who is conscious of it all. And if there was no consciousness, the mind would know nothing. That’s the reason, I also laugh at “scientists” who still debate whether lobsters and frogs are conscious.

All living beings need consciousness for autonomous operation (yes, even plants), otherwise they would have no feedback, no knowledge of their surroundings. But I digress.

I can safely confirm that after realizing that there is but God appearing as all these “things” (including us), the horridness of physicality vanishes. Sure, pain is still pain, but the reaction to it is quite different then before. It is true that suffering ceases. And not just as a concept. I came across people who argued that, since all is an illusion and a mind construct, even if they suffer, in reality they do not. That’s not how it works — suffering ceases literally. The mind is somehow not disturbed (into it).

I guess, it is all tied to our choices and fear of death. Nowadays, I’m not scared at the proposition that this body-mind simply ceases to be — puff, goes into thin air like that (well, more like into the fire or earth, but I guess you get the point).

Maybe I feel a bit uneasy about the process of dying itself, but heck even Jesus got second thoughts in Gethsemane. Who would not. But again, the final reaction is, “Thy will be done,” because you know that all is actually you (God, Tao, etc.), and as I’ve heard someone saying, “Everything goes always your way.” Of course, we can still choose not to accept it.

All in all, maybe the biggest surprise I’ve had was that we have never left Eden (to use Biblical vocabulary). That’s maybe the biggest illusion of them all.

You can imagine, how ridiculous then appears to me what we do to this Garden and to ourselves. I can understand why it happens, but there is no way I can live like that again.

Well, and I could go on and on…