When mystics (or wannabe mystics!) say “I am the mountain”, “I am you”, “be the river”, and so on, what do they mean?
I don’t really know, and I assume it will vary with the person.
When I explore it for myself, I find a few different possibilities.
ONENESS IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD
Some may use those phrases to acknowledge the oneness in the physical world. We are all parts of the same living seamless systems, so – in a metaphorical or poetic sense – I am you and you are me.
I would phrase it differently, but I understand where it is coming from. We are all part of the oneness of the world. We are the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe.
THE WORLD IS MY MIRROR
The world is my mirror.
I can imagine being a mountain, a river, and so on. I can find the part in me that corresponds to it and notice how it feels, how it views the world, and so on. I can have a dialog with that part of me and get to know it.
Similarly, what I see out there reflects something in me.The stories I have about anything in the wider world also apply to me, and I can find specific examples in each case. I can use how I see the world to get to know myself.
TO ME, IT HAPPENS WITHIN AND AS WHAT I AM
To me, any experience – of this human self, the wider world, and anything else – happens within my sense fields. It happens within sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, mental representations, and so on. In that sense, what I experience is what I am at that moment.
To me, all experiences happen within and as what I am. In a very immediate and literal sense, I am the content of my experience. I am what I am experiencing, as I am experiencing it. I am the mountain, the river, you, and anything else. This is the oneness that’s already here in my experience if I notice.
CONVENTIONAL SENSE
In a conventional sense, I am of course this human self in the world. That co-exists easily with all the other ones, and which one is in the foreground depends on the situation and where the attention is.
FIND FOR OURSELVES
These ways of looking at it are all pragmatic and relatively down-to-earth, and it’s even mundane in a good way We can explore it for ourselves. It doesn’t require anything very mystical or removed from our immediate experience as it already is – if we just notice.
INITIAL DRAFT
When mystics (or wannabe mystics!) say “I am the mountain”, “I am you”, “be the river”, and so on, what do they mean?
For me, it can mean several different things.
It can mean acknowledging the oneness in the physical world. We are all parts of the same living seamless systems, so – in a sense – I am you and you are me. I would use different wording for this, but I understand where it is coming from. We are all part of the oneness of the world. We are the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe.
It can mean to imagine being a mountain, a river, and so on. I can find the part in me that corresponds to it and notice how it feels, how it views the world, and so on. I can have a dialog with that part of me and get to know it.
Similarly, the world is my mirror, and what I see out there reflects something in me. The stories I have about anything in the wider world also apply to me, and I can find specific examples in each case.
To me, any experience – of this human self, the wider world, and anything else – happens within my sense fields. It happens within sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, mental representations, and so on. In that sense, what I experience is what I am at that moment.
To me, all experiences happen within and as what I am. In a very immediate and literal sense, I am the content of my experience. I am what I am experiencing, as I am experiencing it. I am the mountain, the river, you, and anything else. This is the oneness that’s already here in my experience if I notice.
For me, these ways of looking at it are all pragmatic and relatively down-to-earth and something we can explore for ourselves. It doesn’t require anything very mystical or removed from our immediate experience as it already is – if we just notice.
…..
…..
Similarly, the world is my mirror, and what I see out there reflects something in me. The stories I have about anything in the wider world also applies to me, and I can find specific examples in each case.
If I take a story I have about something in the world and turn it around to myself, I can find specific examples of how it is valid.
….
These ways of looking at it only gain value to the extent we explore it for ourselves.