Read Online The World is My Mirror by Richard Bates - Free Book Online
Authors: Richard Bates
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is freeing. I suspect our early years were like this until life got serious. However, as I have said already, to look with eyes of a child and the wisdom of an adult is breath-taking.
The Old and the New
We count the days, months and years and mark off our calendars. History programmes show us ancient lands and monuments and describe a time quite different from our own. We are exposed to older cultures and shown the progressive stages man has superseded to reach his current incarnation.
If you found yourself in Egypt you might be marveling at the pyramids of Giza. Your tour guide is rambling on about who built them and how old they are. You look at your watch to see how much longer to lunch time; you have not eaten since 7 a.m. and you are gagging for an Egyptian beer. You look at your watch, the wrist it is sitting on and the fat bloke on the camel who raises an inward smile. The mind is convincing us that there are separate objects appearing all with varying ages and histories. The separate person is convinced that there was a past when all this was built, a time before this one. It is not true; it is a story appearing at the same time everything else is. The hunger, the thirst, the voice of the guide, the wristwatch complete with wrist and the magnificent structures are all the present appearance of everything. Nothing is any older than anything else. They all appear as this one whole dream about people, places, structures and other times. You can wake up whenever you like or snooze a few more decades and get engrossed in the story. Noticing this is stunning. There are no pyramids four thousand years old. Just like that vintage sports car you won in last night’s dream game, it is all just dreaming consciousness, spinning its yarns, having fun with itself.
It is so hypnotic, this life we think we have, so mesmerising. I do not blame anyone scoffing at this and branding me unbalanced. This sounds crazy to the mind; it will not go here. Have you ever been to the vets and seen an owner dragging their dog into the surgery once it sees the white coat of the veterinary surgeon? The claws are digging into the floor and the owner looks like he is training for the World’s Strongest Man competition. Well, just like Rex, the mind does not want to go there. It will resist all the way. Who can blame it? Just like the dog, it is not sure it is going to see the light of day again. However, unlike the dog, the poor old ego will not see the world again; it will become the world instead and in the process vanish like the smoke from a spent match.
See for yourself, check it out. No need to waste your money in a foreign land, though. Next time you walk down the street notice that all the houses, whatever the period, whatever the style, they all appear as this one painting, this one picture colouring consciousness this way and that. Consciousness loves to get lost here in this world of time; it is entertainment it seems. The guy pulling onto the drive in a new BMW with its out-of-the-showroom coat on appears in just the same way. The mind says the driveway and driver were here before the BMW. What nonsense!
The conventional story of objects and ageing is the inevitable outcome of thinking you exist as a separate entity. All conventionality comes with it; it is a package. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is what life does. Sometimes Wholeness plays at being a someone; sometimes it does not. Ultimately, there is only ever presence. This is why thinking that liberation or enlightenment should look a certain way causes great confusion. You cannot tell Wholeness what it is. Be fair, it does not know itself. This is ‘not knowing’, and it is the highest form of knowing there is.
Face To No Face
This section is strongly influenced by Douglas Harding and Richard Lang from The Headless Way website. Douglas was a philosopher and I suppose a bit of a mystic. He was well spoken, very
The Old and the New
We count the days, months and years and mark off our calendars. History programmes show us ancient lands and monuments and describe a time quite different from our own. We are exposed to older cultures and shown the progressive stages man has superseded to reach his current incarnation.
If you found yourself in Egypt you might be marveling at the pyramids of Giza. Your tour guide is rambling on about who built them and how old they are. You look at your watch to see how much longer to lunch time; you have not eaten since 7 a.m. and you are gagging for an Egyptian beer. You look at your watch, the wrist it is sitting on and the fat bloke on the camel who raises an inward smile. The mind is convincing us that there are separate objects appearing all with varying ages and histories. The separate person is convinced that there was a past when all this was built, a time before this one. It is not true; it is a story appearing at the same time everything else is. The hunger, the thirst, the voice of the guide, the wristwatch complete with wrist and the magnificent structures are all the present appearance of everything. Nothing is any older than anything else. They all appear as this one whole dream about people, places, structures and other times. You can wake up whenever you like or snooze a few more decades and get engrossed in the story. Noticing this is stunning. There are no pyramids four thousand years old. Just like that vintage sports car you won in last night’s dream game, it is all just dreaming consciousness, spinning its yarns, having fun with itself.
It is so hypnotic, this life we think we have, so mesmerising. I do not blame anyone scoffing at this and branding me unbalanced. This sounds crazy to the mind; it will not go here. Have you ever been to the vets and seen an owner dragging their dog into the surgery once it sees the white coat of the veterinary surgeon? The claws are digging into the floor and the owner looks like he is training for the World’s Strongest Man competition. Well, just like Rex, the mind does not want to go there. It will resist all the way. Who can blame it? Just like the dog, it is not sure it is going to see the light of day again. However, unlike the dog, the poor old ego will not see the world again; it will become the world instead and in the process vanish like the smoke from a spent match.
See for yourself, check it out. No need to waste your money in a foreign land, though. Next time you walk down the street notice that all the houses, whatever the period, whatever the style, they all appear as this one painting, this one picture colouring consciousness this way and that. Consciousness loves to get lost here in this world of time; it is entertainment it seems. The guy pulling onto the drive in a new BMW with its out-of-the-showroom coat on appears in just the same way. The mind says the driveway and driver were here before the BMW. What nonsense!
The conventional story of objects and ageing is the inevitable outcome of thinking you exist as a separate entity. All conventionality comes with it; it is a package. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is what life does. Sometimes Wholeness plays at being a someone; sometimes it does not. Ultimately, there is only ever presence. This is why thinking that liberation or enlightenment should look a certain way causes great confusion. You cannot tell Wholeness what it is. Be fair, it does not know itself. This is ‘not knowing’, and it is the highest form of knowing there is.
Face To No Face
This section is strongly influenced by Douglas Harding and Richard Lang from The Headless Way website. Douglas was a philosopher and I suppose a bit of a mystic. He was well spoken, very
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