Question and answer 4

Disciple: Can the absence of sorrow, its not-being, and the presence of bliss, its being, both belong to one and the same thing, liberation?

Guru: They can. The absence of the imagined snake is simply the rope, its substratum; in the same way the absence of imagined sorrow is simply bliss, its substratum.

Disciple: In the one thing, liberation, can the absence (not-being) of sorrow and the presence (being) of bliss both be?

Guru: As the absence of the imagined snake is being the rope, the substratum, so the absence of imagined sorrow, being bliss, the substratum, they can be.