Two-way mirror

I keep coming back to this:

The world is my mirror, and it goes both ways.

1. What I see out there, is also here.

(a) The stories I have about the wider world, equally apply to me. Whatever qualities, characteristics and dynamics I see out there, in others and the wider world, are right here. I can find specific examples of this to ground it and make it more real for myself, and I can always find one more. Whatever story I have about someone else or the wider world, apply to me, and not only at times in the past, but right now in how I relate to the ones I have this story about.

I can explore this through The Work, shadow work, tonglen, visualizing myself as the other, voice dialog, and in a number of other ways.

(b) Whatever stories I have about the wider world, happens here now in my own world of images. It is all labels, interpretations and more elaborate stories happening here now, within my own world of images. It happens in my own mental field. For instance, there is a sensation here now. Through an interpretation, I decide it is an emotion. And through another set of images, I place this on someone else. But all the time, the emotion it right here now, and only appears to be out there through an overlay of images.

It is functional and essential being a human in the world, and yet, if we don’t recognize this and take these stories as out there, solid and true, we create trouble for ourselves. And to the extent we recognize this, as it happens, we hold these stories lightly, take them as questions only, and there is more a sense of ease.

I can recognize this through sense field explorations, noticing what’s happening in each sense field here now, and then how the mental field is an overlay on each of the other sense fields.

(c) This is all happening as the play of awake no-thing as form, and I can recognize this too through exploring the sense fields, or through the Big Mind process, or other approaches, or just by noticing.

2. What I know here, is also out there.

This one is equally important. Whatever I see, feel and experience here, is also out there – at least as a potential. When I notice desirable qualities in myself – such as love, insights, wisdom, clarity – I can visualize these qualities in all beings. I can visualize all beings as desiring happiness, wholeness, awakening. I can visualize all beings as full of – or being – clarity and infinite love and wisdom. This helps me recognize the potential in all beings, support this potential in them in the ways they desire (which is sometimes not at all in which case I may make myself quietly available but nothing more), and that I am not special at all. What’s here is all the potential for any being, it’s universal, it’s an expression of life itself.

In both cases, I recognize that I am not special. I am not special by lacking something wonderful I see in others, or by avoiding something undesirable I see in others. And I am not special by having something wonderful that is not there in others, at the very least as a potential and possibility. We are all in the same boat. We are all expressions of life, existence, the Universe, God.

I was reminded of this through exploring the feminine aspect of God, the velvety luminous blackness, the nurturing felt sense of God as all. Not many talk about this, at least not in Buddhist or Christian circles, so it is easy for me to think that this is “special” or that I am more alone in this. So I visualize all beings as consciously and fully living within and as this luminous dark, as the divine feminine, along with Big Mind and Big Heart. I visualize God recognizing itself in all of these three facets through all beings. In this way, I recognize the potential in all beings, and also that many do live from this, including many teachers in many traditions. It is, after all, a facet of God very familiar to people in all traditional and shamanic cultures.

The more I stay with and revisit this visualization, the more I find specific and concrete examples, and the more I feel it in my body and guts, the more real it becomes for me.

……………
……………
……………
……………
……………

• the world as a mirror – two ways
  • (a) what I see out there, also here
    • (i) qualities, characteristics, dynamics – can find specific examples in my own life, including right here now
      • the work, shadow work, visualize myself as the other etc.
      • find here now, both undesirable (shadow) and desirable ones, with specific examples
    • (ii) all happening within my own world of images – all interpretations, labels, etc.
      • (a) an experience here, f.ex. an emotion/feeling here now
      • (b) put onto someone else, filtered so appears “out there” in someone/thing else
    • (iii) all happening as play of awake emptiness as form
  • (b) what I see in here, also out there
    • same potentials, possibilities, qualities
    • visualize all beings with the qualities i know from here, especially the desirable ones – recognize the potential in them
    • visualize all beings as full of/being clarity and infinite love and wisdom
    • visualize all beings as desiring happiness, wholeness, awakening
    • all beings taking refuge in the Buddha, all beings as Buddhas
  • in both cases, not special…..