This Reality of Reflection

What I am thinking we will muse around together here is the nature of our awareness and the nature of the world outside of our awareness. In order to do so, I am compelled to ask you a question. Is your life a journey about becoming somebody or becoming nobody? At first glance it would appear that the essence of this experience is all about somethingness, becoming somebody, being something, but it seems to me the real nature of our journey here is about nothingness… In order to reach that place of understanding, one must put this reality in which we live in it’s proper place and context. You might be wondering. What does that mean? What the hell is he talking about? Just keep reading, I promise, I will get to it…

Everything that exists outside of our consciousness is simply a mirror for our awareness, this includes our body, our relationships, our possessions, our friends, our experiences, everything.  The experience of living as a human being could be described as taking a journey into a world of mirrors, into the world of reflection, where every moment, every experience is simply a reflection of ourselves, all in incredible detail and fullness, so we can feel it with the richness and complexity that only a human being can have. Within that experience lies so much depth and complexity. The whole thing can seem a bit overwhelming at times. The universe is this way by design, this is the dance. A perpetual and never ending reflection for our awareness, seemingly endless circumstances of our lives, and how we think and feel about those, the attachment and clinging of the mind to outcomes. But if you look at it closely enough, you can see that what actually matters is not the reflection itself, but how it works through us, what we are meant to learn and experience from the reflection, what it is showing us about ourselves. In other words, our life is simply the story we tell ourselves, it is our story about the reflection. Sometimes that is a challenging concept to come to terms with, that your life is the story you tell yourself, for most of us, from the moment we arrived here as helpless babies, it has felt as if the world was happening to us. It is meant to be that, in some ways it is a prison for the soul, a Karmic prison, we choose to come here to be captured by that illusion, this is where the term awakening comes from, the ongoing process of opening up awareness about the nature of this reality, reality as a mirror for our awareness.

As I look back on the life that I have lived thus far, it is very clear to me that I have been on one ever present and consistent journey from the very beginning, the only difference between now and when I was 20 or 30 is that I understand why and how it had to unfold the way that it did. I have had my share of attachment and clinging to work though, looking back at it all now, all I can really say is, I am so grateful for the interesting ride it has been. This whole experience of being human is a spiritual journey of awareness for each of us, even if we are unaware of it.  I was completely oblivious to this reality for most of my life, it seemed that whatever this life was, it was about the external world, the things, the experiences, the relationships.  What I could see, what I could touch, what I could achieve, what experience I could chase, what I could own, what I could be, essentially a journey to become “somebody”. What I have come to understand over the last 5 years give or take, that is simply not so, the real experience is a journey within, the ultimate purpose of this experience is to become nobody, that is what this thing is all about, a journey of discovery for our soul, which is why we come to this reality of reflection. Think about it this way, the reflection itself, is medicine for the soul.

If you are having a hard time following this, well, then either I am completely insane, or you are, not that it really matters that much! I am certainly out of my mind, because we can’t understand this with our mind, it comes from somewhere else entirely. Intellectual, logical, and rational beings are by definition part of the illusion, so we must step out of our minds to understand.

Even if I am completely insane, I would never wish to go backwards, but there are moments when it appears that it would be easier to not understand this truth. But here is the thing, there is no way to unknow once you know, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle, so even if I wanted to, I can’t go backwards, and that can feel scary in certain moments, it really is a journey into the unknown, the unknown within yourself. From this side of the awareness, it can sometimes appear that the known might be more straight forward and easier. Because when you know you must begin to step into it, with full awareness and ownership that everything external from you, no matter how it makes you feel, is meant for you, that it all is simply a reflection for your awareness. You can no longer justify to yourself that something might be wrong with some other person or place, but rather it is you doing it, it has always been you, no more being a victim, and try as you might, I know I sure did, you can’t run from yourself, we are all taking this journey whether we want to or not. Eventually we all have to look within, even if that moment doesn’t arrive until we face our own death, the inevitable end of this body, it comes for us all. Looking within yourself, really looking and owning what you are, is the thing we try desperately to avoid, hence the reason we become so fixated on the external world, always seeking and never finding what we are really searching for, lasting joy and peace, as if these actually exist within our attachment and clinging to the reflection, because if they did, it is likely we would have found them already.

Yes it can feel like a lot, but here is the beautiful thing, if we can just take a step back from the sheer eye opening reality check we experience once we really see it, then we see that there is great power within this understanding. No longer is the whole thing happening to you, it is you, it has always been you, so you can write the story however you like. You might be thinking, how does this happen? It is done through our thoughts and feelings about the circumstances the universe is delivering to us, we begin to dance with the universe. If we can shift our thoughts, and really feel what it might be like to be in that new reality, then that is what will happen for us. It is quite simply the law the of universe, it is fundamental to this reality of reflection. The reflection becomes whatever we say it is. Hence the famous saying, “You don’t see the world as it is, you see it as you are.”

In the reflection all around us are the lessons we came here to learn, and the experiences we are meant to have, least we never forget that they just reflections of ourselves. The journey within is the path to everlasting freedom.

Be Free..

Joshua

“The universe is made up of experiences that are designed to burn out your reactivity, which is your attachment, your clinging, to pain, to pleasure, to fear, to all of it. And as long as you’re vulnerable, the universe will find a way to confront you with it. That’s the way the dance is designed.” - Ram Dass