The next morning when I heard the bird, everything dropped away and the next thing I knew I was the bird.
I was the listening.
I was everything.
Everything and Nothing.
So ordinary.

I saw that the real "I" of me was only beingness, was only existence, and that my beingness was exactly the beingness of the universe. And when I saw that, I identified with every being in this universe; I identified with every atom in it. And when you do that you lose all sense of being a separate individual, an ego.

When I saw that, that I AM the Amness of this universe, I then saw the whole world as just an image in my imagination, like a dream.

I imaged or dreamt that I was a body. And I'm dreaming right now that I'm this body.

One night not long after my twenty-ninth birthday, I woke up in the early hours with a feeling of absolute dread. I had woken up with such a feeling many times before, but this time it was more intense than it had ever been. The silence of the night, the vague outlines of the furniture in the dark room, the distant noise of a passing train – everything felt so alien, so hostile, and so utterly meaningless that it created in me a deep loathing of the world. The most loathsome thing of all, however, was my own existence. What was the point in continuing to live with this burden of misery? Why carry on with this continuous struggle? I could feel that a deep longing for annihilation, for nonexistence, was now becoming much stronger than the instinctive desire to continue to live.

‘I cannot live with myself any longer.’ This was the thought that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. ‘Am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the ‘I’ and the ‘self’ that ‘I’ cannot live with.’ ‘Maybe,’ I thought, ‘only one of them is real.’

1. Mulla Nasrudin's family was upset because the girl he was planning to marry was an atheist.
   
   "We'll not have you marrying an atheist," his mother said.
   
   "What can I do? I love her," the young Nasrudin said.
   
   "Well," said his mother, "if she loves you, she will do anything you ask. You should talk religion to her. If you are persistent, you can win her over."
   
   Several weeks went by, then one morning at breakfast the young Mulla seemed absolutely brokenhearted.
   
   "What's the matter?" his mother asked. "I thought you were making such good progress in your talks about religion to your young girlfriend."
   
   "THAT'S THE TROUBLE," said Nasrudin. I OVER DID IT. LAST NIGHT SHE TOLD ME SHE WAS SO CONVINCED THAT SHE IS GOING TO STUDY TO BE A NUN."
   
2. Mulla Nasrudin had just asked his newest girlfriend to marry him. But she seemed undecided.
   
   "If I should say no to you" she said, "would you commit suicide?"
   
   "THAT," said Nasrudin gallantly, "HAS BEEN MY USUAL PROCEDURE."
   
3. ...