Life As a reflection of Self

This article was previously entitled "Mirror Mirror on the Wall".
There is now a second part to this article for further clarification of the points made herein. Click here to read Part Two

22nd October 2003

There is a knowing held by the Kahuna Shaman Priests (and many other "spiritual perspectives") that "We are Divine beings, and as Divine Beings we need NOTHING but a mirror" and life, in it's many diverse manifestations, presents us with that mirror. Any other 'need' we may perceive ourselves to have is simply an illusion—indicative of where we have forgotten our Divinity.

So far, this is also my experience of life. All I see around me is simply Me. All I experience is an experience of My-Self. All I perceive in the world around me and in the people and events around me is a reflection of myself. There are certainly many moments in time (often rather longs ones!!) when I "forget" this Truth, or I times when I simply know it intellectually but it remains to be lived at an experiential level. These are, of course, the areas within me when Illumination and Realisation are still required.

In my experience, there is a trap in this perspective that I have seen arise in people who start to intellectually apply it to their life without having actually deeply realised what it truly means. You see, this perspective comes from a place that is beyond the Illusion—or the Maya—of life on Earth. It comes from that place which "knows of no separation"—beyond the human condition.

What I have witnessed is that some people take this thought-form and start applying it willy-nilly to everything around them but in an incomplete way. For instance, if a large number of people happen to have and express a negative opinion about me then I am told by those with the above mentioned perspective that this person is mirroring a message to me about me. What follows from this is that that I must look into what they are telling me and realise that this negative thing is part of my make-up and is showing me something I am to work on within myself.

What I have come to see, however, is that this attitude is actually coming from both perspectives working (or not working as the case may be) together —the view that everything is a mirror of me and all is one, combined with the (usually unconscious) view that there is in fact separation.

You see... What I have come to understand is that when I look into a mirror there is an image on that mirror... an image of my body, face and overall form. Now, I can see that body and take that image at face value. I may see that image of myself and think negative thoughts. I may react by thinking "boy what a good looking guy", or I might react with the thought "Gee, what an ugly guy". Which is true? Which represents what I see in front of me? Neither and both.

Now, even the mirror itself might not be true... perhaps it is distorted... cracked even. Do I look at myself in such a mirror and react by thinking "gosh, I am cracking up and all distorted"? Also, what about my energy field, my Aura? I do not see that in the mirror unless I already have the ability to see such things. If I took my image in the mirror at face value I could walk away believing that "I have no Aura and the concept of an Aura is not true". But I already know that we do all in fact have an Aura or tangible 'energy field' around us, so I don't walk away with this reaction.

If I elevate my perspective to a place of Truth I will see a radiant Divine being of Light—no matter what the image in the mirror looks like at the apparent level. The trick is being able to elevate ones perspective. I have found that the degree to which I am identified with myself at a material level is the degree to which my perspective remains stuck or bound to this level. The degree to which I identify with God and My TRUE SELF is the degree to which I can view the world with an elevated perspective seeing the divine in all things.

What I have come to realise is this:
If a person holds a "negative" opinion of me, or even 100 people hold that same opinion, this is not what Creation is reflecting to me. No, this is just a distorted image created by a distorted mirror. The point of reflection actually takes place WITHIN me—it is in how what I see effects me or the reaction I have to it within myself. What is invoked within me by the images and reflections I see in the world is what counts.

Let me take a few examples that might make my point clearer...
Jesus Christ was no doubt a very enlightened and highly conscious Being. He quite obviously did not live in a place of separation within himself. Ultimately by the time he was in his thirties I think we can say that He typically felt truly and deeply at one with God, Creation and all things. Yet, at a material/human level he had many enemies... that is, many people that hated and despised him. So much so that these people eventually crucified him. Many thought he was the devil, the anti-christ, a user of witchcraft and many other things. With the misconstrued "world as mirror" view on life do we now say that these people were showing Jesus something about his dark side that he was not facing and dealing with and that he should have stopped in his tracks and bought into this opinions with his energy?

I think not.

Rather I would say that these people were in a state of unconsciousness themselves—they were living in the Maya and identifying with the Maya ("illusion"). When they looked at Jesus they saw their own darkness and fears. When he looked at them, and all their opinions of him, he saw nothing but Himself—namely a Divine loving being. Of course, we all contain the whole, so that which is in other humans is also within myself. People may see darkness in someone like Jesus (or Buddha, Lou Tsu, or Osho, or You, or Me) and that darkness is in fact there at the apparent level —because all manifestations of the human condition are within each person. But we only IDENTIFY with a few of those possible manifestations at any moment in time. It say it the darkness is there at 'the apparent level' because in fact the whole thing is a projection and hence has no basis within the Reality of God.

If you fully and completely identify with that manifestation of the human condition which is Divinity, Truth, Love, Enlightenment then that is what you are... no matter what those around you might see in you and express to you as their opinions. Of course, most of us identify with things that are not in our Divinity. This is where we have forgotten our divinity. A simple way to discover these misidentifications is to be AWARE of what and how I REACT to in the world and in those around me. This is where the "mirror" or life is a reflection of my self analogy comes into play. The MIRROR dynamic is not in what other people's reactions are to me - rather it is in what my reaction to them consists of.

A healer friend I know once told me "It is none of my business what other people think of me". I would say I have to agree. I would add that what is my business is that which is going on within me in reaction to the world around me. Namely, how am I managing my ENERGY / LIFE-FORCE moment to moment, particularly in my relation-ships with those people and events happening around me and APPARENTLY to me?

I can see that the above has come out not as I would like it. I will endeavour to return to this page and rewrite this once I find a way to put this more clearly into words.

Blessings,

Jonathan