"Cogito, Ergo Sum"

There once dwelt a heathen priest in a far away land. One day, while cleaning the altar of sacrifice, there came unto him some fiery and fearsome god, bearing dark lights in his hands, seated atop a throne of horrible frost, stretched forth beyond the visage of the priest. The god spoke with a voice of lightning: "I am beyond what you call Almighty; I am beyond what you call Death; I am beyond what you call Life."

The priest cowered in fear.

The god said to the man, "I bear you loathsome tidings for a man to hear. As a priest, you will preach it to the laymen. There is no hope here or hereafter. In this world men struggle and suffer vainly; for the world is unreality. There is no heaven, no hell, not even an earth; there is only the self-existent mind, which never dies, but continues to exist, wandering cheerlessly throughout eternity. This is merely an illusion which you perceive. There is no sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch; for it is an illusion which you perceive."

The priest sat there, pondering on these aetherial words. After meditating for what seemed an eternity, the priest replied with these words: "If the world be an illusion, then I, too, am an illusion. Being thus, the illusion is real to me."

Then the god, satisfied, left the priest, and the priest continued to clean the altar of sacrifice, and lived the rest of his days in peace and contentment.