A certain powerful king built a huge palace with countless rooms arranged so that one was inside the other, in the shape of concentric squares. The rooms communicated with each other through doors that were located in the same longitudinal direction and were opposite one another so that through them, when they were open, one could see all the decoration of the rooms inside.
The king usually sat in the most distant inner chamber, far from the spectators. When the construction of this magical palace was completed, the king summoned all his nobles and entourage to inspect the wonderful building. But as soon as they gathered and stopped at the first outer doors, all the doors, all the entrances and exits of the palace were closed - and the guests saw in front of them only a row of walls, behind which nothing was visible. And they stood for a long time, marveling at this strange sight.
Then the king's son came out to them and said:
“Don’t you know that my father is the greatest of sages and has all kinds of magical arts?” So know that there is no palace here, and all this is just an optical illusion, a mirage. In front of you is a place open on all sides, undeveloped and unenclosed; in front of you is my father, the great king, whom you do not see only because you are fascinated by his magic and your eyes are covered, as it were, with a veil. And such is your lot - to see different palaces, walls, paintings, things where there is no one and nothing except the king himself.
Such is the visible world. Everything we see is a complete mirage, just an optical illusion. There is nothing outside and besides God; all visible matter is only one of His manifestations, this is a magical garment through which we perceive Him, but which does not actually exist.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru