I've spoken many times on this page of the importance of meditation practice in finding a spacious, unchanging backdrop of Divine awareness with which we can identify, as an antidote to our frustrating daily experiences of loss, turmoil and death. However, spaciousness is not the only aspect of our core being. The other aspect comes from the fact that all human existence is mirrored. In other words, a major part of our being exists only in relationship to others. Since our most familiar mirrors - first our parents, then peers, friends and lovers - all have agendas of their own, we eventually go on a search to find a more stable, less threatening mirror. It is the Divine who ultimately serves as this mirror, and each of us finds it differently. For me, Nature is a major way I discover myself mirrored most completely and most joyfully. For others, art, music, books or churches/sanghas may serve as the sacred mirror. However, as long as we live in this world, other people will always continue to function at least partially as mirrors of our potential self. It is for this reason that we need to be careful always to bring out the best in others, for it is our sacred calling - as embodiments of the Divine - to help mirror back to them their truest Identity. Are we up to the task?
Photo: A Fremont Cottonwood is mirrored during a foggy sunrise in the irrigation ditch across the street from my house; Larimer County, CO; October 25, 2013
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