"<p>It is becoming increasingly clear to me that our life is something other than the mere consciousness of our separateness, what we call our "I," and something more than the mere consciousness of the life of the whole. To be separate, there must be that thing from which we feel separate. And this something from which we feel separated cannot be understood otherwise than as infinite in a material sense inseparable from us in a spiritual sense. This inseparable from us is what we call God. If we allowed ourselves to ascribe, as we are wont, intentions to this God, then He would grant us this separation and the consciousness of our spiritual inseparability from the whole, would grant us life and its good. Death is the cessation of the consciousness of separation. What is it replaced with? Is this consciousness destroyed? One thing is certain: this self-consciousness cannot be destroyed, because it is the only one that exists. Outside of it there is nothing.</p>"