The Inverted Trees

🌿 Tat Tvam Asi

You are That

You are the river that returns to the sea,
the sky folded into the heart.
Not other, not separate
you are the vastness you seek.

This phrase, from the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, is one of the Mahāvākyas,
“great utterances” — of Advaita Vedanta.
It arises within a dialogue between the sage Uddālaka and his son Śvetaketu, revealing a fundamental truth:
that the individual self (tvam) is not distinct from the ultimate reality (tat).

“Tat Tvam Asi” is not an idea to be believed but a truth to be realized,
that all beings, all forms, all names are expressions of one essence.
To hear it with the inner ear is to awaken from illusion.
To know it is to come home.