No Teacher, No Student

Nidagha: "Master, my gratitude to you is infinite. You have given me the highest teaching. I bow to you as guru."

Ribhu: "To whom do you bow? Look carefully."

Nidagha: "To you, my teacher, who has illumined my darkness."

Ribhu: "And who is this me that you see? Is there a person here separate from the awareness that perceives?"

Nidagha: "...I see the form of Ribhu."

Ribhu: "The form is Brahman. The seeing is Brahman. The gratitude is Brahman. Where is the teacher? Where is the student?"

Nidagha: "But you have taught me. This conversation is happening."

Ribhu: "Brahman appears to speak to Brahman about Brahman. A dream character teaches a dream character within the same dreamer's mind. When you wake, where is the teacher? Where is the student?"

Nidagha: "Then our relationship..."

Ribhu: "Is as real as any wave is to another wave. As a play, it is beautiful. As truth, there is only ocean. Honor the play. Do not mistake it for two separate beings."

Nidagha: "Who then has liberated me?"

Ribhu: "No one. Because you were never bound. What binds Brahman? What liberates Brahman? You have always been free. The teaching simply pointed to what was already so."

Nidagha: "Then I thank the teaching."

Ribhu: "And the teaching is Brahman teaching Brahman that it was always Brahman. Smile at the cosmic play, and rest in what you are."