Category: General

Each time when you look at the mirror what do you see? Obviously you will see your own reflection. But rarely do you notice that you are actually looking at the mirror. The mirror and the reflection are entirely two different things altogether. One is where you identify the reflection in the mirror as you in it whereas the other, merely a unique object for mirroring. There are great implications to both kinds of seeing. When the teaching says seeing things as they really are, it is about noticing the object that brings about the projection. In this metaphor, it is about knowing there and then that the mirror’s work is to reflect, to project what is being look into.

And that is exactly what happens to the way we experience our lives. Are we experiencing life with the awakened knowing that it is purely the play of the mind, or that the experience you are in is very real? Both are different ways of seeing altogether. One is recognizing the mechanics of the mind and its potential and that what is “out there” is just a projection, whereas the latter is that what is out there is as real as what is in here. Out there and in here occurs because we did not see the entire setup is the mind. What separate us from the image and our seeing is merely a mirror – that is all it is. In fact it is not even a separation since what is within the mirror is merely a reflection of the seeing, not supposedly another separate object as it seems to be.

When you realize the entire experience is actually the mind conjuring itself, you will be amazed by how effortless your being can be to each moment – neither resisting or holding on as both are amazingly unnecessary since there is nothing to hold or even to resist except an imagination of the nature of ignorant, thinking that there is something out there.

Using the metaphor of seeing the mirror instead of your reflection, I invite you to explore the process of seeing that you are already in now. Experiment to acknowledge that the ability of seeing itself of seeing objects all around is the mind, and what it sees is the mind’s reflection. In other words, “seeing” is the mind’s work. The body that you see of yourself is the projection or a reflection of the mind. The body is an object of the mind. Then expand this consciousness over to your hearing by noticing hearing is happening and the object that is being heard is a reflection of the mind.

So explore seeing as seeing, smelling as smelling, hearing as hearing etc. Do not repeat it like a mantra but rather, do it with a conscious awareness or knowing that what sees is the mind itself, what hears is the mind itself, the very consciousness that we have taken for granted.

In the same way when thought arises in the mind, notice it as the mind rather than what the thought is about. It takes a little conscious knowing, a little awareness to look at that situation differently. In fact awakening is not a kind goal-getting result that is awaiting you somewhere in the future. It is about the potential realization in the here and now where the way you look at things changes – it is merely a change of perception. And this can only happen when right information is given to you and you learn to explore it from that angle. You may not get it immediately – and it is ok; assure yourself it is not because you are blur, unable, or the practice is difficult but rather, it is about being in the process of adjusting to a new way of seeing due to the presence of clinging nature of the ignorant old way of looking at things.

Slowly but surely, when you explore further in a relaxed manner without hurrying to expect a certain result, you will realize a new way of looking at things in a broader perspective, rather than the narrowing mentality of “I”, me or mine.

Through many a birth wandered I in samsara, seeking, but not finding,
the builder of this house. Sorrowful is it to be born again and again.

O house-builder! Thou art seen.
Thou shalt build no house again.
All thy rafters are broken.
Thy ridge-pole is shattered.
Attained is the unconditioned.
Achieved is this end of craving.

THE BUDDHA

When you look into the mirror daily do you notice you are actually looking at the mirror rather than yourself? Yet that experience is not obvious as most of the time the image of ourselves stands prominently more than the mirror itself. Similarly, when you look around are you aware that the “things” around you which includes your body is actually a construct of the mind? Yet that too is not obvious as the “things” are more tangible and real than the presence of mind that cannot at all be verified, except to be known. In that context the mind does a better job than a mirror!

Just as the image of yourself in the mirror is not actually you except a construct of what the function of mirror can do, similarly the mind has the function of projecting itself outwardly making what is not there seemingly in existence. Take for instance, sound. It has long been known that there is no sound “out there” except an interpretation of the mind. Where there is no mind, there is no sound. A familiar question posed on this subject is when we are not in the forest hearing a tree fall, will the falling of the tree create a sound? For those new to this question, it is unimaginable that there is no sound since all the time in our lives anything that comes into contact creates a sound, hence it seems impossible or even insane to think there is no sound arising from such a massive fall of a tree. Yet as been proven by science, the mind merely interprets the frequency created by the contact hence the meaning of sound comes to be.

In other words all our senses of what we see, hear, think, smell, feel, touch, taste are all in reality translation of the mind projecting itself out thus creating a scene of uncountable experiences around us. Yet we are not conscious at all what the potential of this mind can do and thus the imaginative resistance or even holding on to what we experience as wrong or right. Bizarre as we  may one day realize, what we do to the world has not at all left the mind, for the world is the mind itself. Thus, when we resist or hold on we are actually, unknowingly, creating a strange illusion of trap, entangling itself in its own misperception. And to compound that further when one does not realize it is the mind, each entanglement creates further resistance and holding on, thus proliferating the illusion further. In reality, whatever it is, no matter how entangled the mind is, yet nothing actually occurs in the mind – for how can entanglement exist when the mind itself is formless? It is just a play of illusion, of ignorance of what is.

Thus, to be awakened to the mind and find its amazing power of contortion, an illusionist as real as a mirror, is truly a freeing experience. Each time whenever you see something, just remember seeing is happening as to mean the mind is doing the job of seeing. Similarly, when hearing of a sound occurs, just take notice hearing is happening. And when judgment arises, notice that is the the mind too. No one thing, object, or experience within your sphere of knowing cannot not be recognized as the mind, since the word “experience” is the mind itself. Explore interpretations, meanings, separations – you will be amazed the power of the mind in making all these real to your experience – yet it is only the mind :)

Slowly, but surely you will be amazed to recognize the mind in all facets of your life, playing a game of deception. Suddenly, life brings a newer meaning of freedom rather than being identified with survival, insecurity or wanting. Only then do you experience what true joy and happiness is. Enjoy your new found life of perception!

My soul and I went down to the great sea to bathe. And when we reached the shore, we went about looking for a hidden and lonely place.

But as we walked, we saw a man sitting on a grey rock taking pinches of salt from a bag and throwing them into the sea.

“This is the pessimist,” said my soul, “Let us leave this place. We cannot bathe here.”

We walked on until we reached an inlet. There we saw, standing on a white rock, a man holding a bejewelled box, from which he took sugar and threw it into the sea.

“And this is the optimist,” said my soul, “And he too must not see our naked bodies.”

Further on we walked. And on a beach we saw a man picking up dead fish and tenderly putting them back into the water.

“And we cannot bathe before him,” said my soul. “He is the humane philanthropist.”

And we passed on.

Then we came where we saw a man tracing his shadow on the sand. Great waves came and erased it. But he went on tracing it again and again.

“He is the mystic,” said my soul, “Let us leave him.”

And we walked on, till in a quiet cove we saw a man scooping up the foam and putting it into an alabaster bowl.

“He is the idealist,” said my soul, “Surely he must not see our nudity.”

And on we walked. Suddenly we heard a voice crying, “This is the sea. This is the deep sea. This is the vast and mighty sea.” And when we reached the voice it was a man whose back was turned to the sea, and at his ear he held a shell, listening to its murmur.

And my soul said, “Let us pass on. He is the realist, who turns his back on the whole he cannot grasp, and busies himself with a fragment.”

So we passed on. And in a weedy place among the rocks was a man with his head buried in the sand. And I said to my soul, “We can bathe here, for he cannot see us.”

“Nay,” said my soul, “For he is the most deadly of them all. He is the puritan.”

Then a great sadness came over the face of my soul, and into her voice.

“Let us go hence,” she said, “For there is no lonely, hidden place where we can bathe. I would not have this wind lift my golden hair, or bare my white bosom in this air, or let the light disclose my sacred nakedness.”

Then we left that sea to seek the Greater Sea.

By Khalil Gibran, The Madman