the vertical dimension

the vertical dimension

...And taking your example further, we can notice that everything we think we are is composed of content. It's all based on a false foundation. That's a crazy thought and when I think it, I worry that I'm half insane! (I have to remember that the content of that thought is just content... ha ha

[...]

Imagine a world within your mind that is very similar to this one. Within this imagined world, a person very much like you lives a life very similar to yours (let's call this character "mini-me"). As you imagine this world within your mind, try to view it from a detached perspective... as if you were watching a movie. Anyway, this mini-me within your mind is going through life with problems very similar to yours. It goes to work, it goes to school... whatever you do. It runs into the same people that you run into and the same conflicts arise. It suffers just as you do.

Now imagine that one day mini-me starts to question its existence and its place in the world. You are watching all this unfold (since this is all taking place in your mind). You are watching mini-me encouter very similar struggles to yours and you are watching as mini-me gets caught up in its story. It compares itself to mini-others. It thinks it is special and better than mini-others. It gets disappointed when life doesn't go the way it wants. Sometimes mini-me's life is fine and most other times it's awful.

So back to mini-me questioning its existence... Mini-me starts to read mini-Eckhart and is fascinated by the now and the serenity found in the practice. Mini-me starts to realize many fascinating things about consciousness and awareness.

One day, after some time has gone by, and after mini-me has relinquished the need to control its existence, it suddenly realizes its true nature. It knows that it is consciousness. It knows that it is an actor in this movie that you have been watching/imagining. It knows that it is free and that the struggles that it has gone through were due to an identification with content. Many profound things start to make sense to mini-me. It understands intuition. It understands how others struggle and sometimes even feels compassion towards mini-others. Mini-me's mind is almost always silent. It settles into a calm that it did not know was possible before. It realizes that life is actually a simple affair. But mini-me's spiritual journey has still only just begun.

Some more time goes by and mini-me has another breakthrough. Something clicks and mini-me's existance comes into complete focus. It has experienced what it actually means to be consciousness. It has embodied it's existance. What does this mean? Mini-me has realized that it is you, the silent witness... the watcher. The one imagining mini-me's existence. The watcher that has always been there; watching mini-me live its life and suffer and struggle. Mini-me has actually understood and experienced that you are there and that you are watching it go through this imagined life within your mind. This figment of your imagination has realized that it is a figment of your imagination. Try to understand what this means... it's quite an odd thing to think about. Basically, something that you have imagined knows itself to be something imagined. At that point, mini-me has no choice but to see the reality of its existence. Since it is you (the imaginator), it is also everything that you are imagining. It becomes aware of the space around the content that mini-Eckhart kept talking about. After settling into this reality, mini-me begins to see things in a completely new light. Vision is clear and originates from the heart. Mini-me sees god everywhere it turns. It sees the world as it was meant to be seen. Mini-me is love. Mini-me is consciousness. The experience of life takes on a completely different meaning.