Mirror, Mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?
It is amazing how much truth can be hidden in a fairy-tail.
When I was a child, mirrors were very intriguing to me. What was real, and what only looked real ? I used to look for hours at what was reflected and wondered what it was that was hiding in the mirror --some secret that it had and it wanted to tell me.
I realized that if looked at the edge of the mirror, I could still see, but would not see my reflections. A very small change in my point of view changed everything.
This experience was a profound pointer to the question:
who is the watcher of experience?
At first glance we look and say "that's me" -the image that we see. But we all know that an image in a mirror is not "me." Yet at the same time we believe that concepts we hold on to about ourselves are us, that they prove to us that we're a body with a brain. You can delve much deeper into this, but you won't find a concrete proof that you are a body. Start here if you like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality Ekart Tolle in one of his talks discusses this and says that we don't have to take a stand one way or another, and that it depends on our point of view. If one says they are a body, they also know that they are much more than that.
Nevertheless, what I am pointing to in this note is that to learn, we have to see beyond what we believe because belief itself is a limit on us. It's like our eyes.
In 1994 I began reading A Course in Miracles, and very early in the book, a line struck me profoundly:
"You believe that what your physical eyes can not see does not exist." T-1-22, pg 4
This certainly was true. I had become disillusioned with western religion and felt "tricked" a number of times growing up. I certainly felt like a victim of both the major divisions of the Western Christian religion, and ultimately I blamed God. Now looking back through all these years I can see that it all was a wonderful training ground for me to recognize what's important and want is not.
I learned that it's not what you believe that's important, but what you don't believe. When you're in a space of "not knowing" magic happens. Insights occur. The box begins to collapse.
The Ego (one's Self-image) hates not knowing. It would much rather believe half truths or lies than not to know. The reason is that it uses thoughts about itself to define itself. If there are no thoughts about itself, then it dries out and you became free of it. Thoughts then can be used to help you in your daily life, but you're not a slave to them. When thoughts come, you don't assume that they are "your thoughts" any more than if a cloud comes along you believe it to be "your cloud."
ACIM says that one of it's major teaching goals is to teach the student to see the difference between the "Real" and the "Unreal." To help in this, it says that if anything changes, it is unreal. What is "real" does not change because it is already perfect and whole.
Looking back at our mirror, let's look together and see what is real, and what is not.
Images change, so they are not real. Change your perspective and now watch the watcher. The watcher is real, because it does not change. Awareness is aware of bodies, thoughts, and all phenomenon, yet it doesn't change. The watcher --pure awareness is the Real you !