World as a Mirror

As human beings, the world is a mirror. We see a quality "out there" and recognize it from within ourselves - or not. But we would not recognize it unless we were familiar with it in ourselves in the first place.

Everything I see in the wider world is also there in my human self. Every single quality and characteristic, in other people, in animals, plants, microbes, landscapes, ecosystems, the Earth as a whole, the solar system, the Cosmos, in dreams, stories, movies, fantasies - everything reflects what is in me as a human being.

It may be there mostly as a potential, it may be lived out in daily life, it may be brought into awareness or not, but it is there - as surely as I see it out there. The question is not if, but how.

How does it show up in my life? How does it come up in my emotions, thoughts and behaviors? How does it show up in my daily life, interiorly and in my interactions with others?

Attractions and aversions as glue

As long as something is seen only in the outer world and not also in the inner, it will be associated with attractions and aversions. And these attractions and aversions serve as the glue which brings my attention to it in the outer world, and allows me time to sink into it and see it equally well in myself.

More familiar and skillfull

As I become more familiar with it in myself, the blind attractions and aversions tends to fall away. And there is more of a sense of overview, choice and skillfulness in relating to it when it comes up in others or myself. I am more familiar with the territory and can navigate it with more skill and - hopefully - wisdom.

Deepening transdual

This process of recognizing qualities both out there and in here, brings me from a blindly dualistic view - seeing something either only in here or out there, to a deepening transdual view - realizing that it shows up both places, equally, although with different masks.

Into Big Mind

I gradually come to realize that there is no absolute boundary between inner and outer, between this human self and the rest of Existence. The world of phenomena is a seamless process.

And this in turn gives me a taste of Big Mind, of that beyond and including all polarities.

It goes beyond and includes all polarities within the world of form, such as nature and culture, humans and Earth, individuals and cosmos. But it also goes beyond that - beyond and including polarities such as existence and nonexistence, spirit and matter, creator and creation, and so on.

Doing but no doer

We realize - gradually or suddenly - that there is only one Existence, beyond and including all polarities, and it is that Existence which is acting through this human self. There is no individual doer as a segment of all this, only the whole acting through the parts - similar to an ocean moving as its waves.

There is no "I" as a segment of all of this, only the whole - beyond and including all polarities, and operating temporarily through this particular human being.