When I’m not so heavily caught up in my own life drama or sulking over how incredibly harsh the world seems to be at times, when I’m not doomscrolling from under a blanket curled up like a deplorable fetus lost in the narratives of news around the world and my existential fears, brewing like a moka pot that’s about to boil over, is seen through, I enjoy playing with the display and dance of form through the events, circumstances and opinions that flood my way. Perhaps this short essay is an invitation to you to see how radically beautiful our direct experience can be…and I’m not even referring to a play with the mind or our constantly exaggerated thought processes. I am talking about a very very subtle shift in perception that changes how we see(instead of what we see). Isn’t it incredibly obvious that there is nothing outside of us. Everything happening is undeniably inside. Oh, I say this and(believe it or not, I shrug in real life while writing this) still fall into my own grief..which I realize needs no fixing. You know why? I will tell you!
See, the world, my world is a reflection happening WITHIN myself. However we even define and describe ‘self’.
Most of us move through life acting as the “repairmen” of our own existence. We look at the external world—our relationships, our environments, global events—and we see a checklist of things that are wrong, broken, or out of place. We believe that if we can just rearrange the furniture of the world to match our inner preferences, we will finally be at peace. If you’ve ever worked with an excellent therapist or a professional coach who knows what they are doing(not the self-proclaimed coaches), they act as mirrors to bounce off the words of our worldly perception as opposed to telling us what to do to fix situations. Why? Because our perception clearly impacts how we move in the world. But it’s not so much about changing our perception. I will leave that to psychology and self-helping. I am speaking about how we even hold perception in our damn hands. There just is a deep truth to explore, a “wonderful setup” to examine. We must start with this assertion: the external world is not a separate, hostile territory to be conquered. It is quite truly, a reflection. It is the play of forms in the mirror of perception. I will explain it with mirrors.
The Great Hall of Mirrors
If you were standing in a hall of mirrors and found yourself frowning in the mirror, you don’t try to walk over to the glass and physically twist the reflection’s mouth into a smile. If you did, you’d be there for a long time, no longer frowning but now frustrated and also fighting now to move the frown that turned to frustration into your own self-imagined mould. Instead, with intelligence, you could see that the reflection is secondary and the source of the reflection is in fact the primary reality. In the contemplative traditions, this is often described as the world being a projection of consciousness. The external is not separate from the internal; they are two ends of the same stick.
The joy of this realization—the “intense play”—comes when we stop judging the reflection as “good” or “bad.” Or as I like to say in person, we need to stop bleeding the symptom and repercussion of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Side note: my darn entire practice is to learn to remember this. A mirror does not judge what stands before it. It reflects a rose with the same precision and willingness that it uses to reflect a garbage can. Clearly, the miracle is not the content of the reflection, but the capacity to reflect at all. And that is what really fascinates this mind named Seye.
As the Sufi mystic Rumi beautifully said:
“The nature of reality is this: It is hidden, and it is hidden, and it is hidden. The nature of appearance is this: It is revealed, and it is revealed, and it is revealed.”
In the same fragrance, the writer of Proverbs 25 writes, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” You see, the “forms” we see are the revealed dance of the hidden consciousness. So then when I notice unpalatable appearances, I dance! Well, let’s be honest, that happens only when I remember. But let’s pull the thread to its origin, let’s follow the breadcrumb to our very existence! Why do we even exist? To suffer? I reject this idea! I think that suffering exists within our perceptual lens but so do other things! These appearances are the most ridiculous dance!
The Divine Play (Lila)
Why does this setup exist? If the inner is whole, why project an outer world at all?
The answer in many Eastern traditions, is Lila (Sanskrit for “Play”). Consciousness projects the world not to solve a problem, but to experience itself. It is a game of hide-and-seek played by the One appearing as the Many. When seen, the heavy burden of “fixing” the world drops from our shoulders. We realize that the play of forms is exactly that—play. It is a creative expression. The observed reality becomes a playground for the Observer.
“So are you saying we shouldn’t fix anything? Isn’t the world broken? Do we then fold our arms and watch the world burn down? Can’t you see all the evil in the world? ”
No! No! No! You may be missing the point if you don’t catch the subtle hinting here. Now, let me go slower, painting this out gently while sharing this insight in a way that doesn’t suppress or bypass real life f*ckery.
The Wonderful Setup
We often fall into the trap of thinking the goal of spirituality or self-improvement is to create a “perfect picture”—a life with no pain, no conflict, and only pleasant forms. But consciousness is not interested in only the pleasant forms. Consciousness is interested in being.
Think of a master painter. A painter does not only use bright pinks and soft blues. They use shadows, stark lines, and chaotic splashes of red. The joy of the painter is not just in the pretty meadow; the joy is in the act of painting itself—the capacity to bring form out of the void. Or in Genesis 1 terminology, “light out of the formless and void”.
When we realize that our external reality is a projection of consciousness, we stop obsessing over whether the picture is “good” or “bad.” We begin to marvel at the mechanism itself. We realize, “Wow, look at how powerful this awareness is! It is so potent that it can appear as a difficult boss, a beautiful sunset, or a quiet room.”
This is the “play of forms.” The universe is then seen not as a courtroom where we are being judged but a playground where the One is pretending to be the many.
The Observer is the Observed
The core of this contemplation is the collapse of the distance between “you” and “it”, between “me” and “you”, between “they” and “us”.
In our ordinary state, we feel like a tiny subject inside the body looking out at a world of objects. We say, “I see the tree.” This creates a duality: the Seer (me) and the Seen (the tree). This duality is useful for moving around and interacting with objects but it also creates friction, fear, and a desire to control when not seen from the other vantage point. If you look closely, can you find the line where the seeing stops and the tree begins?
The renowned philosopher and mystic Jiddu Krishnamurti spent his life pointing to this specific realization. He famously said:
“The observer is the observed.”
He did not mean this metaphorically. He meant that without your consciousness, the tree does not exist as you know it. And without the tree, your consciousness would have no form to take in that moment. They arise together. They are one movement.
When you look at a mountain, you are the mountain. When you listen to music, you are the hearing of the music. There is no tiny person inside your head watching the movie of life; you are the movie, the screen, and the light all at once.
Nothing to Fix, Everything to Explore
This is where the joy enters. If the observer is the observed, and if the external is a reflection of the inner, then the war is over.
Usually, we approach life with a “Fix-It” mentality. We think, If I fix my bank account, I’ll be happy. If I fix my relationships, I’ll be safe. This is the exhaustion of trying to comb the hair of the reflection in the mirror rather than combing your own hair.
When we shift to the view of “Consciousness at Play,” the mandate changes from Fix to Explore.
* Instead of asking, “How do I get rid of this anxiety?” we ask, “What is the texture of this energy? How is consciousness taking the shape of tightness in my chest right now?” Anxiety then begins to morph all by itself. I don’t say we explore this to get rid of anxiety! I am saying we explore this because we can explore. The consequence becomes the morphing of anxiety into insight, the transformation of insight into peace. Ah! But we need to remember to explore. Don’t we?
* Instead of asking, “Why is this person annoying me?” we ask, “What part of my inner landscape is appearing as this person to show me something about myself?” No!!! Don’t psychoanalyze the hell out of this! I am suggesting we dissolve the self-and-other-ness of the situation and see that the annoyance is only happening within. The person is a projected form that’s erupting the said conditions or situations. In so doing, we can deal with the world but we know that our first point of call is within. You see, my relationships are me! When there is chaos, I take full responsibility. Why? The chaos is happening in me! Do I have to fix the relationship? Yes. But only through the direct dance within my insides as the inside flows to mirror the external! Isn’t that fantastic?
As the Sufi poet Rumi wrote,
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
He didn’t say the wound is a mistake to be erased. He said it is an opening. It is a portal for exploration. Every form, whether painful or pleasant, is a valid and safe expression of the consciousness we are. Rumi(I think) further wrote,
“Why are you busy looking for your soul in the house of others? Leave them. Enter your own.”
But what’s wrong with fixing anything?
Fixing assumes a flaw at the center. Exploration assumes openness at the center. The second posture aligns with direct experience. Awareness already holds everything presented to it. “We”, the all forms, moves in Presence. Through Presence, the karmic stickiness of challenges, chaos, fracture, misalignment, unwinds all by itself through guided action. You see, I am not preaching a ‘do not fix anything’. I am saying take a look at ‘what’ or ‘who’ fixes anything in the first place? I am saying what is it that needs fixing? I am saying “could we see that we adjust our seeing and then we see clearly and in truth. I am saying, Jesus was recorded to have said in Matthew 6:22, “The eye is the lamp of the body; so if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.”
A Practice: Dissolving the Distance
To move this from an intellectual concept to a felt experience, try this simple contemplative practice. You can do this with eyes open, right where you are.
The Practice:
* Select an Object: Choose a simple object in your room:a cup, a flower, or a stone. Place it in front of you.
* The Labeling Phase: Look at it and notice how your mind labels it. “That is a cup. It is white. It is over there, and I am over here.” Notice the sense of distance.
* The Reversal: Now, soften your gaze. Instead of “grasping” the object with your eyes, imagine the image of the object is coming to you. It is arriving in your awareness.
* The Inquiry: Ask yourself, Does the seeing of the cup happen ‘over there’ on the table, or does the seeing happen ‘here’ in my awareness?
* The Merge: Realize that you cannot separate the image of the cup from your awareness of it. If you take away awareness, there is no cup. If you take away the cup, the awareness has no form. They are the same occurrence.
* The Feeling: Rest in the sensation that the object is made of the same “stuff” as your mind—it is made of Knowing. There is no distance. You are not looking at it; you are being it.
When we stop trying to fix the mirror and start enjoying the capacity to see, I find that life becomes lighter. We realize that the “external being” is just the “Inner Being” turning inside out to play with itself. The joy that comes out of this, I find, is present in the ultimate safety of this realization. We are the canvas, and we are the paint. The picture may change a thousand times a day: tragic, comic, boring, beautiful but the Canvas remains untouched, pristine, and open to it all.
There is nothing to fix. There is only the endless, joyous exploration of ourselves in the mirror of the world. When I find myself caught up in nagging over ‘my’ life and the world, when Grace brings me to remembering who I am, my ridiculousness is literally laughable!
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