I cannot "see" the reality of my be-ingness, because I am it. I cannot "see" myself. I can see the effect of that reality, of my existence, it is what is "out there". I cannot "see" me, just as the eye cannot see itself, but the experience of my world tells me that I "am", just as the fact that I see objects tells me that I have at least one eye.
A light falling upon a tree will give a shadow of the tree. This shadow tells us that there is a tree, or something of similar two dimensional shape, and a light source, without our having to actually see either. We need only look at the shadow to infer the existence of the source. What we see out "there" is the shadow cast by the existence of ourselves- our "selfs", with reality as the "light source". Just as the shadow of the tree tells us that the tree and light exists, the shadow called "out there" infers that reality and I exist. It tells us that something is somewhere, but it doesn't tell us what or where.
When we live a life as if what is out there is real, we are living life as if we had mistaken the shadow of the tree for the tree itself. When we are made happy or sad or excited by what is happening in the world, we are reacting to the movement of the shadow. We will have problems in the world as long as we believe that there is something we can do to the shadow to make it behave. Only when we realize that whatever we do to the tree affects the shadow will we be able to manipulate the shadow. Only when we realize that the world is the shadow of "I" will we be able to live in it contentedly.
It is extremely difficult to realize that what is out there is not real because we see the shadow (the world), but we don't see the tree. We don't see the tree because we ARE the tree. I exist. I am real. That "out there" is a mystery. What is it? Where does it come from? Do my senses detect it, or do my senses create it? Totally unknown, except that it definitely isn't what we believe it to be, whatever way we believe. Because THAT is contained within the confines of our skull- in our brain.
What you take these words to mean is illusion. It is shadow. It is not real. The experiences that you are having while reading, THAT is real. Any meaning or concept or conclusion is the work of the mind trying to make sense of something that doesn't require any meaning or sense. When it is raining, that's all- nothing more. The rain is not good, or bad. It is not hard, wet, dry, or any other thought you may put upon it. It is not even rain. Reality is like that. It is complete within itself. It needs no additions or qualifications. To do so merely confuses the onlooker and causes him to make life a difficult chore instead of a joyous dance.
Each of us has some idea or concept about who or what we are. This idea, this concept that we have, expresses itself in a particular manner. Our "self" casts a shadow. This shadow has the appearance of our body, our hopes, fears and dreams, our friends and our interests. It is our personality, our physical body, our influences. It is ego.
The shadow cast by a tree gives us a clue as to the configuration of the tree itself, but in no way is the life of the shadow as full and as varied as the tree's life. In the same manner, the life we are living as the shadow of ourselves in no way compares to the rich and full life that awaits us if we live our lives as our real "selfs".
If a tree thought that it was its shadow, and lived its life accordingly, it would be imprisoned by what it thought itself to be. In reality, it would not be imprisoned at all. We are of the same ilk. We are not imprisoned at all. We are merely living our lives as if we were our shadows. The fulcrum for all beliefs, for all thought, for all desires, pain, and joy , the point upon which the physical world sits is "I", our sense of identity, "me". What is this "I" which is us? Whenever I look, I am always there. In a dream, I am there. As soon as I return from unconsciousness, the first thing noticed is "I". "Where am I?" is asked- never, "who am I?". I am my god. It is I that I serve, it is I that occupies most of my thoughts. "I" is the most common word I use. By far. I am my whole world. God is my God. People are my friends, strangers are strangers only to me. I am the center of the universe.
The universe is my universe.
Thoughts which rise from "I" form into beliefs and belief systems, creating the illusory world, this shadow world. Beliefs exist. We have to live with them. The objective, then, is to pick our beliefs in the same way we should pick our friends. We should pick beliefs that are easy to get along with, ones with which we can relate- ones that will assist us in times of trouble, comfort us in times of sorrow, ones that have the same interests in ourselves that we do. We shouldn't keep associating with beliefs that just happen to have attached themselves to us simply because we and they happened to meet at some point in our lives.
Belief systems may be thought of as structures we need to guide and protect us as our awarenesses expand to include a greater reality, in much the same way a glass will protect a small seedling or a playpen will guide and protect a baby from harmful situations that the baby's awareness is not ready to handle.
If we are living a life that seems to contain a little too much anxiety, sickness or unhappiness, then the playpen, instead of being a protector, will seem more like a prison. A life that is not full of joy is an indication that the awareness is ready for a fuller and richer life. It needs a more all-encompassing belief. The baby is ready to play in the street, so to speak.
We may feel that we want more from life but we don't know how to scale the walls of our prison, or we may be afraid to leave the protecting walls. We may want to stand up for what we believe to be ours, but we fear the rejection and ridicule we may have to face. We may be in a situation in which we feel that we are being hampered in our ability to fully express ourselves. We may feel a duty to our parents, spouse or children which prevents us from removing ourselves from what we feel to be tyrannical pressures forcing us to conform to a mold where we feel helpless and hopeless. If we can see that it is only our beliefs about the way things are that causes our conundrum, and not the way things really are, then we will be able to at least look for a way out.
There is a definite procedure to be followed when engaged in the activity of belief removal and replacement. The first thing that must be accomplished is to find out exactly, what it is that we believe. We can't take our word for it that we believe what we think we believe, because we really don't know. We just think we do.
The only way we can find out for sure what we believe is to periodically look at what we are thinking about. Diligently done, the practitioner will soon discover that there are many things that he thinks he believes, but really doesn't, and that there are things he believes that he didn't know he did. First watch thoughts, find beliefs and belief systems, find core beliefs, which are basic survival beliefs, like the way you see health, profession, and family, and then, once these are found, one may then proceed to getting rid of those beliefs causing discomfort, replacing them with beliefs which enhance the quality of one's life.
Say that you have watched your thoughts and you have noticed that every once in awhile you find yourself thinking, "humans are such terrible creatures, they pollute, war, murder, etc." Even though you might think this an idle thought, you must, on some level, have the belief that this is true. Otherwise you wouldn't have that thought. You also have another belief that you are human. Unconsciously, then, you have the belief that YOU, being human, are a terrible creature. How would this hidden (from you) belief affect your self esteem, your confidence in your activities with others? Obviously it would be to the benefit of your enjoyment of life that this particular belief disappear.
All mental activity needs attention in order to operate. Attention is like a power source. If, every time you found yourself thinking about the atrocities humans engage in with each other, you instead turn your attention to the goodness and benevolence of the human race, the negative belief, being deprived of the nourishment of attention, would eventually wither away. The positive thought, on the other hand, being force-fed nutrition, would become stronger, and soon the one would replace the other.
In order to replace other, more basic to life kinds of beliefs, another technique is used. In this technique, the art of ridding one's self of beliefs and replacing them with consciously chosen ones centers around the power of imagination- a vastly underrated function of mind.
Let's suppose you are an Atheist, and you comprehend the power of the mind and its relation to the world, and you look around for some belief that you would like to have, knowing that the belief's reflection will appear "out there" as what we call, "reality". You want to change the world you live in, in the most dramatic way possible. So you think, would I like to have a God in my life? A God that would listen to my prayers, would have these tremendous powers, and would have my enjoyable existence as one of the primary goals of His life, like a loving parent has for its children? Yeh, that sounds good. So what you do is begin to act "as if" God existed. You may begin to pray, for instance, EVEN THOUGH YOU DON'T AT THE MOMENT BELIEVE THAT GOD EXISTS. You act "as if", as you did as a child when you played cowboys and Indians. You go through the motions. You also keep it going in a playful manner, as you did as a child. You consciously look for evidence of His existence. Instead of attributing some event to luck, look to see where "God" played a hand in it. Events that seem to point up the absence of God, you ignore. You take attention away from those types of thoughts. You especially watch out for thoughts on the order of "this isn't going to work, this is just imagination". That belief is guaranteed to sabotage any effort you might make along these lines.
If you wish instead to live in a world run by magic, then use this same method to bring the magic of the ancient Merlin into your world. Make deals with fire spirits. Construct a magic sword and mirror from materials that you have gathered yourself, using incantations and whatever. Talk to the trees, to the wind, prostrate yourself before the rising sun. Act "as if" magic is a commonplace method that some humans use, and others don't. Just don't make the exercise serious or hard work. Keep it light, keep it fun. Keep it important.
Next Month, Part 6 Our Prison, Our Ego & The Hall Of Mirrors