I liked this image that came up in a conversation with Kiara:
Imagine a river that suddenly thinks it’s an eddy, and only the eddy, and then panics and stresses about it.
That’s what’s happening with us. We are the river – the whole field of experience and awareness – and yet identify as a small part of it. And since it feels small and contracted and vulnerable, we – at least at times – panic and stress out.
It’s innocent. And the panic and stress is love, it’s worried love.
Taking ourselves to be the eddy and only the eddy is stressful, partly because it’s not the whole truth, and partly because we find ourselves very fragile. Noticing ourselves as the river again can happen in a few different ways. One is to examine our identifications and identities, and the process of identification. This helps release the “glue” that holds our mistaken identifications in place. Another is to notice and bring attention to the larger river and resting as this river. This helps us notice that we already are the river. We are consciousness and it’s content, including that which a thought may label inside and outside, this person and the wider world.