"Роджер Желязны. Lord of Light (Лорд Света, engl) " - читать интересную книгу автора

reality and remembers words. The more words he remembers, the cleverer do
his fellows esteem him. He looks upon the great transformations of the
world, but he does not see them as they were seen when man looked upon
reality for the first time. Their names come to his lips and he smiles as he
tastes them, thinking he knows them in the naming. The thing that has never
happened before is still happening. It is still a miracle. The great burning
blossom squats, flowing, upon the limb of the world, excreting the ash of
the world, and being none of these things I have named and at the same time
all of them, and this is reality-- the Nameless.
"Therefore, I charge you-- forget the names you bear, forget the words
I speak as soon as they are uttered. Look, rather, upon the Nameless within
yourselves, which arises as I address it. It hearkens not to my words, but
to the reality within me, of which it is part. This is the atman, which
hears me rather than my words. All else is unreal. To define is to lose.
The
essence of all things is the Nameless. The Nameless is unknowable, mightier
even than Brahma. Things pass, but the essence remains. You sit, therefore,
in the midst of a dream.
"Essence dreams it a dream of form. Forms pass, but the essence
remains, dreaming new dreams. Man names these dreams and thinks to have
captured the essence, not knowing that he invokes the unreal. These stones,
these walls, these bodies you see seated about you are poppies and water and
the sun. They are the dreams of the Nameless. They are fire, if you like.
"Occasionally, there may come a dreamer who is aware that he is
dreaming. He may control something of the dream-stuff, bending it to his
will, or he may awaken into greater self-knowledge. If he chooses the path
of self-knowledge, his glory is great and he shall be for all ages like unto
a star. If he chooses instead the way of the Tantras, combining Samsara and
Nirvana, comprehending the world and continuing to live in it, this one is
mighty among dreamers. He may be mighty for good or for ill, as we look upon
him-- though these terms, too, are meaningless, outside of the namings of
Samsara.
"To dwell within Samsara, however, is to be subject to the works of
those who are mighty among dreamers. If they be mighty for good, it is a
golden time. If they be mighty for ill, it is a time of darkness. The dream
may turn to nightmare.
"It is written that to live is to suffer. This is so, say the sages,
for man must work off his burden of Karma if he is to achieve enlightenment.
For this reason, say the sages, what does it profit a man to struggle within
a dream against that which is his lot, which is the path he must follow to
attain liberation? In the light of eternal values, say the sages, the
suffering is as nothing; in the terms of Samsara, say the sages, it leads to
that which is good. What justification, then, has a man to struggle against
those who be mighty for ill?"
He paused for a moment, raised his head higher.
"This night the Lord of Illusion passed among you-- Mara, mighty among
dreamers-- mighty for ill. He did come upon another who may work with the
stuff of dreams in a different way. He did meet with Dharma, who may expel a
dreamer from his dream. They did struggle, and the Lord Mara is no more. Why
did they struggle, deathgod against illusionist? You say their ways are