So you’re creating your reality, amidst this giant game board set up with nearly every option you can imagine, if you can figure out how to get yourself from here to there. Life is truly all about how far you can see.
Once that gaze shifts inward more often than outward, your perspective of what your eyes see changes dramatically as well.
For instance, the “things” that exist around you—those objects situated in your room, serve their function in multiple ways. Let’s imagine a lamp. Besides the utility-related function of a lamp, this object is also available to contribute to your metaphor of, say, “the giver of light.” Perhaps, in addition, the lamp, bulky and jutting out into the room, serves as a nuisance in a small space. So the lamp serves as a multi-function tool, perfectly placed in your environment, for exactly when you need it.
You also get to choose on how many levels that object represents itself; from utilitarian, to metaphorical, to cluttered junk. And your subconscious is making its own judgments on that lamp too. It could remind you, lurking in the back of your mind, of your creepy uncle who always tried to get you alone in a dark room.
You are so powerful, that you can attribute a meaning to something you see NOW, with an event from your PAST…and that new conclusion can drastically alter your life for evermore.
These objects were not just placed here randomly. Each object, or “prop” as I like to call them in game-master fashion, plays a multidimensional role in your life story.
And one object that is in nearly every human’s possession in some way, shape or form, is the mirror.
Our friend on occasion, our foe more often than not, this prop follows us through every chapter of our life.
It starts by hanging right over us as infants, to bat around with yet-untrained mechanically-disfunctional hands, and the infant learns that his funny faces are shown right back at him. A part of him, still fresh from the non-physical realm of freedom, recognizes this reminder that the Law of Attraction still applies here, on this very densely constructed game board we call Earth.
As we age, the mirror adopts other roles, such as providing a pimply teenager with the opportunity to survey the damaging eruptions that separate him from the identity-bewildered teenagers that comprise his peers. He rarely makes funny faces in the mirror anymore, because he correlates the reflection he sees with his identity, with his worthiness to society, and with his chances of succeeding in life.
Of course, I need not elaborate on how the mirror contributes to supporting the solidification of belief systems regarding the loss of beauty in any number of ways, whether that be by aging, an injury, or even lack of sleep. The mirror is always there to provide you with the chance to address your beliefs about these themes, whenever you are ready.
So the polished glass we gaze into, presumably checking for errant spinach in the teeth, represents much more than an image reflecting a carbon-based organism standing next to it.
Once these themes are addressed, we begin to use the mirror for other purposes.
It is utilized to look inside our own eyes, and assess our ability to face ourselves—up close, and magnified at times—regarding lingering matters that could benefit from the healing. As each topic is attended to, the reflection in the mirror will gradually represent something new to our expanding sense of Self.
There will be more love and acceptance, and less concern about what we physically reflect to the world, since we know that the true source of the reflection transcends mere skin and bones…and is demonstrated through our deeds, actions and words expressed along the way.
So your mirror truly is your best friend, always with you, or at least nearby in any environment you may find yourself in on the game board. Your eyes are the soul’s physical vessel, and every time you view yourself, you have the opportunity to look much deeper than the mere image reflecting back at you. You can modify that reflection, simply by looking into your own eyes and loving what you see there.
author: Kimberly
Indra's Net | Buddhists.org
July 2, 2020[…] The story of Indra's Net was further developed in Mahayana Buddhism in the 3rd century, and again in Chinese Huayuan Buddhism between the 6th and 8th centuries. In Buddhist texts, Indra's Net is sometimes referred to as a net of pearls, or a palace of mirrors. […]