Any story about the world is a self-portrait
This may be a given, at least for those who have explored projections:
Any story about the world is a self-portrait
Any view of the world - any model, any framework, any map, any theory, any impression, any perception, any story, any thoughts and feelings about how others or the world is - is a self-portrait. It is a portrait of myself, as I am right now. It is a reflection of what is alive right here, right now, in immediate awareness.
Any scientific model, any spiritual model, any religious story, any story about my neighbor, they are all self-portraits. They all show what is alive in immediate awareness, here now.
Any creation story, from religion or science, is a reflection of how I am created right now. Any story about my neighbor is a story about what is alive right here right now. Any model of human development reflects what is going on in immediate awareness, from the levels to the processes.
It cannot be otherwise. I only know the world from what is already alive in immediate awareness.
Double function: aid for navigation and a self-portrait
Which is not to say that they are not useful in navigating the world. They are not only useful, they are essential for operating in the world. And there may even be a great deal of agreement that some of these views, models, frameworks and stories are useful and helpful.
Yet, they are still also 100% self-portraits. They effortlessly function as aids for navigating the world, and as self-portraits, at the same time.
Freud knew
It is interesting that this was clear to Freud and inherent in his views on projections.
Projections can be blind projections, and that is how the word is often used nowadays. We see something out there, and not also in here. We are blind to it in ourselves.
But projections are also more general. I cannot know the world, except for what is alive right here now, in immediate awareness. That is the only way I know the world. I cannot recognize hatred in someone else, unless I know it from myself. It has to be alive here first. That is the only way I can know it.
Labels: projections