Yesterday I discussed the analogy of looking into a mirror and what, if any, life that mirror image had. That reflection of your physical manifestation was only that, a reflection, it has only a derivative reality. If you walk away from the mirror the reflection evaporates.
Today I want to carry this same frame of thought a bit farther. Perhaps we can look at Awareness from another angle. For whatever we propose in this investigation has only one goal…one “non-goal”. In recognizing Awareness the reflection has to be destroyed so that what remains may shine. We want to look into the mirror and see nothing. That’s the best way I can put it! When Awareness is beheld there is nothing there; it’s only the brilliant, alive, “seeing”, the True Beholder. It’s standing in front of a mirror and seeing only a mirror.
This reminds me of Snow White and that wicked witch gazing into the mirror asking “Who’s the fairest of them all?” If we are really being honest with ourselves no one is the fairest. That is, if we’re talking about beauty and perfection. Any thing or person is a dualistic phenomenon, an arising in Awareness. To be something it has to be separate and therefore imperfect. That being the case it must imply it’s opposite. You can’t have beauty without ugliness. If there is a distinction there, who determines what is the most beautiful…where does ugliness begin or end?!
The apparent universe is a whirling pool of black and white, this and that, up and down; it’s nothing other than distinctions. But as long as we’re being honest (because we’re all really highly moral people you know!) what perfection might we see in that magical mirror. To the apparent person who recognizes their true nature, he or she “sees” only the transparency of infinite, undetermined, unmanifest Awareness. They see only the mirror!
Staring into the mirror of the True is a fantastically liberating experience. I’m really pushing the envelope on this analogy, but investigate the possibility that who you think “you” are is simply a mirroring apparatus. What if the world, your person, and every-thing else is a surface for Awareness to manifest itself and reflect its own glory?
From the ground of the Absolute or the nondual emerges a projection in form, a manifestation of which your apparent selfness is a product. If we can provisionally think in terms of meaning, though there is no meaning from the aspect of Awareness, you are simply a mirror in which Awareness can witness itSelf. Manifestation is a projection of the Light of Awareness into form. These arising phenomena are perfect reflectors of Light.
This is where religion can serve a positive influence. You may know that in the Bible we are told that man was created in the image of God. Most of what we are told about man in the Bible suggests that we are finite reflections of the perfect God. If we interpret this in light of nonduality we can see how Christianity is an appropriate metaphor to clothe the naked truth of Awareness. God (Awareness) manifests as man (Christ, a perfect reflection) for His own purpose and pleasure. I’m not going to get to deep into a nondual expression of the Christian faith but I would suggest Frithjof Schuon’s book “The Fullness of God” if you are interested in the subject.
Recognize what you are. Do away with what you are not. Remember neti neti: look into the mirror of your inner being. What do you see? Can you label it? Can you claim it? Can you possess it? Is there any distinction whatsoever? If so it is not you. Look beyond the arising, recognize the Light that projects the manifestation of a “you”.
Every time you pass a mirror I want you to recall what’s been said here. Keep it in the back of your mind. What do you see in the mirror?
