Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya said,

Continued from here

• If on the other hand, you contend that objects exist even if not perceived by us, I tell you - listen! There is no consistency in the world regarding the existence or nonexistence of things. Their cognition is the only factor determining it. Just as reflections have no substance in them, outside of the mirror, so long as the things of the world have no substance in them outside of the cognizing factor, viz., Intelligence. The detail and tangibility of things are no arguments against their being nothing but images.
• Those qualities of reflected images depend on the excellence of the reflecting surface, as we can see in the case of water and polished surfaces. Mirrors are insentient and are not self-contained. Whereas, consciousness is always pure and self-contained; it does not require an external object to create the image. Ordinary mirrors are liable to be soiled by extraneous dirt, whereas consciousness has nothing foreign to it, being always alone and undivided; and therefore its reflections are unique. Created things are not self-luminous and are illumined by another's cognitive faculty. Cognition of things implies their images on our intelligence. They are only images. The creation therefore is an image. It is not self-shining; and thus it is not self-aware, but becomes a fact on our perception of it. Therefore I say that the universe is nothing but an image on our consciousness. Consciousness shines notwithstanding the formation of images on it; though impalpable, it is steadily fixed and does not falter. Just as the images in a mirror are not apart from the mirror, so also the creations of consciousness are not apart from it.