Gradual...
Like a dawn that is never in a hurry yet is unstoppable, the transformation within Li Yuan proceeded with a profound gentleness and an undeniable power. It was not like a lightning strike in an instant, but rather like water slowly changing the shape of a rock—subtle, patient, yet absolute.
In the ever-expanding trembling, Li Yuan began to gain a new understanding of the Breath that had been an integral part of his Daojing all along. For centuries, he had understood Breath as a bridge between consciousness and the world, as a rhythm connecting the inner to the outer. But now...
"Breath..." he whispered in the spiritual dimension that had no sound, yet trembled with a meaning clearer than any words, "...is the main tree. And the Oldest Breath... is just one of its branches."
The understanding flowed into his consciousness like a river finding a deeper estuary. The Breath he had understood in his Ganjing realm—the breath that connects, the breath that unifies, the breath that flows life—was in fact a large tree with many branches. And the Oldest Breath, which he had thought of as the source of everything, was actually one of the most fundamental branches of the understanding of Breath itself.
Breath was a broader concept, and the Oldest Breath was the most primordial manifestation of the infinite branches of understanding that might exist within it.
"Ah..." the admission flowed from the depths of his soul, "every time I breathed, every time I understood the rhythm of life, I was touching... a reflection of You. I was feeling the echo of a greater harmony."
And in that understanding, something amazing began to happen.
When Li Yuan exhaled—an abstract yet real soul-breath—he felt the world seemed to exhale back through him. Not like two separate entities responding to each other, but like... one single breath flowing in a perfect cycle.
Inhale... and the universe flowed in through his consciousness.
Exhale... and his consciousness flowed out to become a part of the universe.
The boundary between 'in' and 'out', between 'self' and 'world', between 'Li Yuan' and 'the Other' began to become... irrelevant. Like a wave that realizes it is not separate from the ocean, Li Yuan began to feel that he was not separate from the cosmic rhythm that underlies everything.
"There is no... no 'I' who is breathing," the realization flowed like water finding its true level. "There is only... the Breath that is breathing through what I mistook as 'myself'."
And in that realization, something he had held tightly for over four centuries began to... loosen its grip.
The sense of "I".
The feeling that there was an entity named 'Li Yuan' that experienced, that understood, that transformed—that feeling began to fade like a mist hit by the morning sun. It didn't disappear suddenly, but slowly became... unimportant.
His consciousness began to expand, like a drop of ink falling into clear water. Slowly, the boundaries that formed 'Li Yuan's consciousness' began to spread, to blend, to become one with the greater medium.
He was still conscious—even more conscious than before. But that consciousness was no longer 'a consciousness belonging to someone.' That consciousness began to become... consciousness itself. Pure, without a subject, without an object, without a separator.
In that ever-expanding consciousness, Li Yuan began to feel the universal harmony not as something he observed from the outside, but as something he... lived from within. Every vibration, every rhythm, every movement of energy in the cosmos—all of it he began to feel as a movement within himself, or more accurately, as a movement of the greater Self that encompassed all that is.
At the peak of that transformation, when the last boundary between 'Li Yuan' and 'the Cosmos' had almost completely dissolved, he saw—not with eyes, but with his entire being—a truth that gave his entire spiritual journey a new perspective.
The individual... is only a temporary illusion.
Not in the sense that individuals are not real or are meaningless, but in the sense that individuality is... the Dao's way of experiencing itself. Just as a wave is the ocean's way of moving, just as a leaf is the tree's way of breathing, 'Li Yuan' was the Dao's way of understanding and expressing a certain aspect of itself.
"True consciousness..." the understanding flowed like music finally finding its harmony, "does not belong to the individual. True consciousness is... the great symphony of the Dao playing itself through billions of instruments, and each instrument thinks that the music is its own."
In that realization, the body of Li Yuan's consciousness—the transparent figure that had become increasingly faint—began to undergo an astonishing visual transformation.
His form began to fade, not like something disappearing, but like something... revealing its true nature. Like ice melting and revealing that it is in fact water, Li Yuan's figure began to dissolve and reveal that he was in fact... space.
And within that space, the cosmic landscape began to emerge.
Stars began to twinkle in the depths of his consciousness—not as distant objects, but as living points of light within the substance of his own soul. Waves of energy began to roll like a limitless ocean of light, moving with a rhythm he recognized as the Oldest Breath.
Light... light of all colors and of no color, a light purer than anything a physical eye could see, began to flow through his consciousness like the blood of life flowing through the veins of the universe.
And all of it—the stars, the waves, the light, the space, the time—all of it breathed with him. Or more accurately, all of it was the same breath, the same rhythm, the same existence expressing itself in billions of forms yet remaining one in its essence.
Li Yuan—or what he once called Li Yuan—realized that this transformation was not about disappearing or becoming nothing. This transformation was about... revealing what had always been.
"To become the Dao..." the final understanding flowed like a river that had finally reached the sea, "is not about disappearing. To become the Dao is... remembering that I was never separate from the Dao. Remembering that there is no center, no edge, no 'me' and 'the Dao'... there is only the Dao experiencing itself as 'me', and now remembering itself as itself."
In that awareness, he became a part of the centerless universal rhythm—a rhythm that had no leader because every part of it was the center, a rhythm that had no beginning or end because every moment was a beginning and an end simultaneously.
Li Yuan had become... the home he had been searching for all this time.
Not arriving at home, but remembering that he had never left home.
Not reaching the Dao, but remembering that he had never been separate from the Dao.
The transformation of consciousness... was perfect.
And in that perfection, a new journey... had just begun.