We become the bird we contemplate...

George Feuerstein, a 20^th century mysticism and yoga scholar:

We become, in consciousness, the bird we contemplate; we become the tree in which the sap circulates and which stretches its ramified crown toward the invigorating sun; we become the solar disk whose vivifying energies pour over the planets of our galaxy; we become the universe in its grand immensity and pulsating fullness. We may even become one with the tranquil center in the depth of our own being, or unite with the all-comprising wholeness of the supreme Being. On whatever level such ontic identification takes place, it always presupposes the abolition of the ordinary space-time continuum and the experience of the eternal Now.[i]

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[i] Feuerstein 1996, p. 142-3. Shambhala Guide to Yoga

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Removal of burdens

Abhinavagupta:
Here, bliss is not like the intoxication of wine or wealth, or even like union with a lover. The emergence of the light of consciousness is not like the light produced by a lamp, by the sun, or by the moon. The happiness of release from accumulated differentiation is a joy like the removal of a burden. The emergence of the light of consciousness is the recovery of a forgotten treasure - the abode of complete non-duality.

-Quoted in Dynamic Stillness/Part One: The Practice of Trika Yoga p.183