Life as a Reflection of Self - update

Saturday 10th April - Easter weekend

I was reading over the "Life as a Reflection of Self" article just now. I wrote that in October of 2003. Since then my realisations pertaining to this particular topic have deepened and as a result I feel to write an update to this article. Here it is...

As mentioned in the article entitled The Illusion everything we perceive around us and within us is an illusion that the ego-mind projects into our field of awareness. Taking this into consideration the Life as a Reflection of Self analogy takes on a slightly different shape from how I previously explained it in October. Everything I perceive is a projection from the ego-mind. The source of Light running through to projector—to speak in metaphoric terms—is the Light of the I AM, which is hence the Light of God for the I AM is an extension of God. Much of what you and I perceive on the 'screen within our minds'—which humanity refers to as reality—is nothing 'personal' or individual to you or I. It is simply part of the collective unconscious, or the collective ego-mind. Hence when I look at what we call a tree the experience I have—at least at a visual level—is relatively the same as the experience you have. What I perceive as a cat is pretty much they same as what you perceive as a cat. This applies to much of what we each perceive within so called 'reality'.

Now, there are also variations within the illusion and differences in perception. Much of this all arises again from the ways in which different 'thought-forms' held by certain 'parts' of the collective qualify 'reality'. For instance, there are people that perceive an energy field—namely the Aura—around human beings and other living things. This is not something the majority of people perceive. A certain thought-form within a small portion of the collective creates this perception for all those who identify with or subscribe to that aspect of the illusion.

Are you still with me? If not then I invite you to reread over the last few paragraphs. Allow the mind to soften—because it might struggle with some of this—read over the above statements again and let them sink in. Oh, and remember to breath and be at ease.

Okay, so what I wish to touch on now is the phenomenon of what we each perceive as 'the other'. So, we each look out into the world—which is a projection from our ego-mind—and invariably perceive that there are other people there. Sometimes I just see these other people getting on with their day and have no apparent interaction with them. Sometimes they appear to be a more integral part of my apparent world. Sometimes they might appear to tell me that I am either 'right' or 'wrong', 'good' or 'bad'. Of course those terms are seldom used as they are. Rather there are all sorts of things that the 'other' might say that either presents me with approval from the other or disapproval from the other.

Both are false and both have no substance within God's Vision of Reality. Both are projections. The ego-mind will perceive the disapproval as an attack. Deep down it also perceives the approval as an attack too. I won't explain just now why that is. Perhaps you can figure it out.

So, if in my experience of the world everything I perceive is a projection from the ego-mind then where does that leave me in the face of apparent approval and disapproval—in all their many forms—from the world around me? Again it comes back to how I experience these apparent things.

If I perceive disapproval as an attack—namely it urks me, 'gets right up my ass', pisses me off, or leaves me feeling low etc—then I have perceived it through the ego-mind, which is where all perception arises anyway. As only the ego-mind is capable of perceiving attack it can also be said that within this part of the illusion I have forgotten my Divinity because my Divinity is Invulnerable and knows nothing of attack. The Christ Mind does not perceive attack at all. Nor does it perceive approval, or disapproval, from 'the other'. The Christ Mind only experiences itself—in itself and all things as an extension of itself. Whilst making your way out of the illusion you will either perceive disapproval as an attack or as a call for Love.

The same actually applies to apparent approval from the other. If the other is making reference to my ego-mind projection—the persona, self-image, and mask that I project out into the world—then it is referring to something that is not real. The ego-mind will perceive this as something 'positive' and affirming. What is actually being affirmed is the false existence of the ego-mind and hence within the illusion this is again an attack and is again a call for love.

Now this does not mean that we should never pay others compliments and give people our approval. Approval is still more life-giving than disapproval. The key, however, is to practice seeing beyond the appearance of the 'person' in front of you in your world. See beyond this appearance and start to perceive your own Christ Mind. You might be thinking to yourself, "what the hell does he mean by that?... see my own Christ Mind in this other person?—I don't even experience the Christ Mind in myself and hardly have a clue as to what it even is". Yet this is just it. Seeing the Perfection and Love within the other is synonymous with seeing it in yourself. You can practice both on a daily basis. If you are apparently on your own then practice experiencing it within yourself. If you appear to be around others then practice experiencing it in them.

In order to come back onto the same line of thought explored within Part One of this article I should really touch back on the topic of the world as a reflection of self.

Yes—your experience of the world around you is a reflection of how you experience yourself. If you perceive attach from the other—which you can recognise by being aware of the reaction that takes place within you—then you are in some way attacking yourself through your false perceptions of reality. If you find yourself getting inflated and ego-centric as a reaction to apparent approval from others and also if you seek that approval from others then again you are attacking yourself by denying that which is Whole within you and that which could never need nor even perceive approval from the other. Why is this? Because in God's True Vision of You—as an extension of God—you are perfect are one with all things. Hence there is nothing outside of that perfection that could judge You as either good or bad. God simply Is and That I AM.

So having read all this—and hopefully reread it until you start to get a feeling of recognition for it—how do we take it beyond being just an interesting intellectual exploration? Well, the key is Awareness. Many things and events are going to appear on the screen within your mind—within the world that you perceive 'out there' around you. Simply be Aware of these things as they unfold. Then also be aware of how you feel inside in reaction or response to these things that appear within your world. If someone comes up and tells you "you're a real prick and I hate you" then simply breath consciously and slowly and cultivate being aware. If you find you're freaking out all over the place and telling this person to "fuck off, I hate you too"—or perhaps something less extreme but equally as reactive—then you may have to wait until you are in your own space where you can find stillness within and again come back to breathing and being aware of the feelings that arose. Know that this person that appeared to call you these things was calling out for love. Know too that this was a projection from within yourself, and that it came from a place within you that is also making a call for love. Once you have really touched in with that place within you that felt hurt by the words of the other then remain aware and start to realise it never actually happened. It was all going on within your own personal world simply to show you where there is an absence of Love. Love is synonymous with Divinity which is the same as saying 'an absence of recognising the Truth of God in your life'.

As perhaps stated in the Part One of this article, those on the path to healing are wise not to ignore what goes on in the apparent 'outer world' in relation to them. Rather we are best to remain acutely aware of the reactions that arise within. People can bring you their gifts of apparent attack, anger, negativity etc but a gift is a gift—if you don't accept it then it has no place in your world. You'll know whether you have unconsciously accepted it or not by remaining open to and aware of the emotions that arise in direct response to that gift.

Blessings,

Jonathan