Rama asked:
Lord, what is the seed of this fearful tree known as the mind and what is the seed of that seed and so on?
Vasistha replied:
Rama, the seed for this world-appearance is the body within, with all its notions and concepts of good and evil.
That body has a seed, too, and that is the mind which flows constantly in the direction of hopes and desires, and which is also the repository of notions of being and non-being and the consequent sorrow.
The world-appearance arises only in the mind, and this is illustrated by the dream state.
Whatever is seen here as the world is but the expansion of the mind, even as pots are transformations of clay.
There are two seeds for the tree known as the mind which carries within it innumerable notions and ideas: first, movement of prana (lifeforce) and second obstinate fancy.
When there is movement of prana in the appropriate channels, then there is movement in consciousness and mind arises.
Again, it is the movement of prana alone, when it is seen or apprehended by the mind, that is seen as this world-appearance which is as real as the blueness of the sky.
The cessation of the movement of prana is the cessation of the world-appearance too.
~ Yoga Vashisth – (The Supreme Yoga)