Look in the Mirror
Our Lesson for my Spiritual Grp. this past Wednesday...Good conversation! Going over it again in the a.m. with another grp. I meet with....enjoy!
No matter where we turn, we see our own shadow. Sometimes it looks back toward us through the faces of our brothers. Sometimes it skips before us as we run full tilt in the wind. Our shadows do not disappear. They remain with us. People who believe in ghosts are not that far off. Ghosts are shadow figures. Everything we are afraid of is personified somehow, yet it belongs to us. Everything we see on the outside of the body/mind confirms are inside reality. If you take that inner reality without outside reflection, what you have is the death state, a state empty of projection, a state in which interaction is unnecessary, because the parts of the whole are no longer separate. But in the world, there is an inside and an outside. There is an image and a reflection. There is a mind that thinks and a mind that feels. The feeling mind reflects the thinking mind, because every feeling is a reflection of a thought. Often, it is hard to separate the feeling from the thought, so closely does one follow from the other. The whole psyche is a field or array of thought/feeling constructs intricately bound together. Each field of consciousness intersects and interacts with others, further complicating the picture. Indeed, it is impossible to grasp the component parts or the number of relationships between them. What we can grasp, however, is that at any moment in time what we see outside of us reflects our internal field of consciousness, or unique array of though/feeling constructs. As such it is a mirror for us. Looking in this mirror can be painful, but it is not nearly as painful as pretending that the mirror is not there. Every person who walks into our lives and pushes our buttons is but a personification of our own shadow. They have no objective significance in our lives. Often we return the favor, pushing their buttons too. Our interaction is totally subjective. It is the relationship of one shadow to another. Only when one person wakes up and understands that the interaction is all about him own shadow….what he hates, cannot accept, or fears about himself….does the mirroring stop. That awareness removes the hook! Destroys the projection. Interactions like this cannot continue except through the agreement (usually unconscious) of both parties…We don’t look into the mirror to learn to hate ourselves, but to recognize our repressed judgments. These judgments sabotage our ability to feel whole in ourselves or in relationship with others. Thus, the descent into the darkness of our own psyche is essential to our healing process. Without the descent, we cannot become light-bearers. Interestingly, this descent into the darkness and subsequent ascent into the light does not happen in a linear manner. It is a cyclical journey. First I face some preciously denied fear, bring it to the light, and then another one surfaces. Sound familiar? Each victory is followed by a subsequent. We have done ourselves a disservice by looking at our spiritual process through the eyes of the world or the ego. From the perspective of both the ego and the world, we are all miserable failures. Linear, step by step, task-oriented thinking simply cannot penetrate to the meaning of cyclical processes. Only the intuitive, feeling mind understands the concepts of polarity and change. Collectively, eastern traditions are more comfortable with the feeling mind. Indeed, the Taoist tradition, from which comes the I Ching, the Tao Te Ching and other masterpieces of spiritual understanding, offers us some of the deepest insights into the process of change. To the Taoists, everything is energy in motion. Even ideas that seem to have reached their apex or nadir recycle by moving toward the opposite pole. To the eastern mind, life is a pendulum, moving back and forth; it is not a linear journey in one direction. This perspective helps us understand that our spiritual progress is not to be measured by how many of them we learn, but by our willingness to look in the mirror when it is handed to us. A Course In Miracles says that this “little willingness” is enough. In that respect, every time we are willing, we move to encompass all of our lessons simultaneously. Every time we open our hearts, we have a taste of what it feels like to be truly open. So every lesson is a widening and deepening of consciousness. It is a stretching of the mind beyond its conceptual limits and a stretching of the heart beyond its emotional boundaries. It is a bringing of unconscious material into consciousness, a healing of the past wounds, and a new faith and trust. One success brings another challenge. One failure brings an opportunity to choose again. There is absolutely no judgment implied in this. Subjective processes don’t have a beginning or an end in time. That is hard for us to understand and accept. But it’s an essential awareness if we are to look into the mirror over and over again without getting dispirited or depressed. After enough mirror gazing, we all develop our “cosmic sense of humor.” We no longer try to be perfect, or try to get all our work done in time. We become content with whatever life brings. Just to deal with what comes up without crucifying ourselves or others is enough of a challenge. And we’re smart enough, or experienced enough, to know that every once in a while we are going to blow it. I mean, we’re going to completely forget everything we ever learned and do the most stupid thing we can imagine. All our worst fears are going to come true. We’re going to be embarrassed, outraged, and turned inside out. And, somehow, were going to survive that. And perhaps even see it as a gift! And then, we really know that the journey goes round and round. And we know that we’re ok, regardless of where we seem to be or what seems to be happening. And this brings us to the last step, which we must know by now, is also the first.
No matter where we turn, we see our own shadow. Sometimes it looks back toward us through the faces of our brothers. Sometimes it skips before us as we run full tilt in the wind. Our shadows do not disappear. They remain with us. People who believe in ghosts are not that far off. Ghosts are shadow figures. Everything we are afraid of is personified somehow, yet it belongs to us. Everything we see on the outside of the body/mind confirms are inside reality. If you take that inner reality without outside reflection, what you have is the death state, a state empty of projection, a state in which interaction is unnecessary, because the parts of the whole are no longer separate. But in the world, there is an inside and an outside. There is an image and a reflection. There is a mind that thinks and a mind that feels. The feeling mind reflects the thinking mind, because every feeling is a reflection of a thought. Often, it is hard to separate the feeling from the thought, so closely does one follow from the other. The whole psyche is a field or array of thought/feeling constructs intricately bound together. Each field of consciousness intersects and interacts with others, further complicating the picture. Indeed, it is impossible to grasp the component parts or the number of relationships between them. What we can grasp, however, is that at any moment in time what we see outside of us reflects our internal field of consciousness, or unique array of though/feeling constructs. As such it is a mirror for us. Looking in this mirror can be painful, but it is not nearly as painful as pretending that the mirror is not there. Every person who walks into our lives and pushes our buttons is but a personification of our own shadow. They have no objective significance in our lives. Often we return the favor, pushing their buttons too. Our interaction is totally subjective. It is the relationship of one shadow to another. Only when one person wakes up and understands that the interaction is all about him own shadow….what he hates, cannot accept, or fears about himself….does the mirroring stop. That awareness removes the hook! Destroys the projection. Interactions like this cannot continue except through the agreement (usually unconscious) of both parties…We don’t look into the mirror to learn to hate ourselves, but to recognize our repressed judgments. These judgments sabotage our ability to feel whole in ourselves or in relationship with others. Thus, the descent into the darkness of our own psyche is essential to our healing process. Without the descent, we cannot become light-bearers. Interestingly, this descent into the darkness and subsequent ascent into the light does not happen in a linear manner. It is a cyclical journey. First I face some preciously denied fear, bring it to the light, and then another one surfaces. Sound familiar? Each victory is followed by a subsequent. We have done ourselves a disservice by looking at our spiritual process through the eyes of the world or the ego. From the perspective of both the ego and the world, we are all miserable failures. Linear, step by step, task-oriented thinking simply cannot penetrate to the meaning of cyclical processes. Only the intuitive, feeling mind understands the concepts of polarity and change. Collectively, eastern traditions are more comfortable with the feeling mind. Indeed, the Taoist tradition, from which comes the I Ching, the Tao Te Ching and other masterpieces of spiritual understanding, offers us some of the deepest insights into the process of change. To the Taoists, everything is energy in motion. Even ideas that seem to have reached their apex or nadir recycle by moving toward the opposite pole. To the eastern mind, life is a pendulum, moving back and forth; it is not a linear journey in one direction. This perspective helps us understand that our spiritual progress is not to be measured by how many of them we learn, but by our willingness to look in the mirror when it is handed to us. A Course In Miracles says that this “little willingness” is enough. In that respect, every time we are willing, we move to encompass all of our lessons simultaneously. Every time we open our hearts, we have a taste of what it feels like to be truly open. So every lesson is a widening and deepening of consciousness. It is a stretching of the mind beyond its conceptual limits and a stretching of the heart beyond its emotional boundaries. It is a bringing of unconscious material into consciousness, a healing of the past wounds, and a new faith and trust. One success brings another challenge. One failure brings an opportunity to choose again. There is absolutely no judgment implied in this. Subjective processes don’t have a beginning or an end in time. That is hard for us to understand and accept. But it’s an essential awareness if we are to look into the mirror over and over again without getting dispirited or depressed. After enough mirror gazing, we all develop our “cosmic sense of humor.” We no longer try to be perfect, or try to get all our work done in time. We become content with whatever life brings. Just to deal with what comes up without crucifying ourselves or others is enough of a challenge. And we’re smart enough, or experienced enough, to know that every once in a while we are going to blow it. I mean, we’re going to completely forget everything we ever learned and do the most stupid thing we can imagine. All our worst fears are going to come true. We’re going to be embarrassed, outraged, and turned inside out. And, somehow, were going to survive that. And perhaps even see it as a gift! And then, we really know that the journey goes round and round. And we know that we’re ok, regardless of where we seem to be or what seems to be happening. And this brings us to the last step, which we must know by now, is also the first.
Replies
I hate tornadoes (unless I\'m exactly in the safe center watching all the new stuff flying around and around, then I love them, it\'s entertaining.) I\'m funny that way, spiritually speaking.
Thanks for posting your entry.
Hugszzz,
Rich
This is great...thanks xxxxx
Co-dependency is all about having the perfect feelings for the group we\'re with at anytime and anywhere, IMO; and that perfectionism is not a required obligation for survival. Just as you reported it.
Thanks again.
Hugs,
Rich