WHAT DO WE SEE IN OUR MIRRORS?

I had a conversation the other day with two good friends about the concept of the Divine Mirror. I remarked that I had finally understood what the shamans mean when they say that all of life’s experiences constitute a mirror in which are reflected the true state of the psyche at any point in time. It’s a very simple concept really and I can’t imagine why it was so difficult for me to grasp.

Perhaps one of the reasons preventing comprehension lies in the ubiquitous attitude adopted by many of us in the world today – the victim complex. The overriding tendency is to blame anything or anyone for whatever misfortune comes our way, and the innate resistance to taking full responsibility for our thoughts, words and deeds provides unwarranted support to the fallacies of the victim complex.

A few years ago I incurred an accident while on a motorcycle and as a result received compensation from the insurance company. The cause of the accident, as I see it clearly now, lay in my absent-mindedness while riding. It was a beautiful, carefree evening and a wave of nonchalance descended on me while I rode past the cars almost mindless of the heavy traffic around me. I was overtaken by a driver who barely touched the right wing mirror on the bike, the impact of which, sent me tumbling thirty-feet forward with the bike beneath me; the driver, perhaps oblivious of his contact with me continued on his way without stopping. The general consensus after a few months of deliberation deemed that I was a victim; I was awarded a sum of money and the case was closed. I know now, in careful retrospect, that I was not a victim. The mirror has since revealed that had I been as alert as I usually am on the motorbike I would have seen the car approaching from behind and would have steered my way out of impending danger. Lack of wakefulness is the fault of no one save the one who sleeps; I was, indeed, dreaming on the occasion and was totally unaware of the forces around me. The fault, therefore, lay fully in my lack of awareness.

We have become fixated on the idea of external blame and shame and the benefits derived from the victim complex. There is great profit to be gained from the victim mentality and more and more of us are falling prey to the scheme as a means of acquiring something for nothing. The money I was awarded came as a great surprise and was certainly desired at the time, but I know now that it was payment undeserved!

The Divine Mirror is one of the greatest tools we are given for self-development, as it never lies. Whatever occurs in the external world in relation to each of us is a direct reflection of an internal attitude or fixation. External events mirror precisely where we are in terms of consciousness and the key lies in learning how to read them. When kindness is expressed by others it is often the result of something radiating from us, and in the same way the opposite is true. At times the mirror reflects darker shadows which require an honest recognition of what is lurking in the deep; these unpleasant shadows may be so ingrained in the personality that we are loathe to see what is truly there, and in order to hide and avoid them we resort instinctively to the blame and shame game, thereby shifting the attention away from self-reflection and onto something or someone else. When we do this – and it is more often than we realise – the lessons that are presented are never learnt and so we find life presenting us over and over again with the same problem, forcing us to look, admit and learn. When we refuse to look deeper into ourselves over a period of time, the shadows become a permanent fixture in the character, presenting an even greater obstacle to freedom. If the impediments are acknowledged, however, we have the choice to eliminate them from our consciousness and to become permanently free of them. These are great moments in our development, but more often than not we refuse to look into the mirror because it is painful to admit that we harbour such thoughts or feelings.

The Mirror is our pure Presence. It’s purpose is to show us the many covers we have created over our true being-ness; it teaches us to observe outside what we have created within, and invites us to transmute our limitations so that pure Light can shine forth. If we are open and honest we will understand what we see in ourselves and so learn to let it go; with this knowledge we are able to understand the impediments of others and are more equipped to help them when need arises. The unraveling of our limitations keeps us developing on the path, and as each layer is exposed, so we discard the ignorance which obscures the Light that is ever seeking to shine forth in its beauty and simplicity.