In lower levels things are dark, gray, experiences are shallow. You become alienated from those around you.

A person without much power is easily influenced by others, whether they are physical or non-physical beings. Their life is easily ruined. They are blown around like a leaf in the wind.

Everything is part of one web, one matrix of existence, beyond discussion. This is our true self in its undifferentiated form.

Outside of nirvana, the planes begin, the subtlest planes of light that vibrate fastest, all the way on down through the astral realms through the physical and so on.

The universe is made up of an endless ocean of life itself. It is an endless ocean of itself. And for a time it binds itself together in particularized forms. Those forms have perception and they perceive themselves as being separate.

Lao Tsu says the way of life is ancient, timeless. It is existence which he calls the Tao - a mysterious source, beyond understanding, and all of us are a reflection, if not that source of life ourselves.

If we immerse ourselves in the ultimate good, we will have this silly smile on our face or perhaps just inside our hearts. That is what illumination is.