Wednesday, August 20, 2014

The World as a Mirror (Revised)

It's like you're my mirror,
my mirror staring back at me.
I couldn't get any bigger,
with anyone else beside of me.
And now it's clear as this promise,
that we're making two reflections into one.
'Cause it's like you're my mirror,
my mirror staring back at me, staring back at me.
(Justin Timberlake, Mirrors)

Our friends love and accept us, they rarely give us advice or remind us of our shortcomings, but when they do, we better listen. Unfortunately it is hard to embrace this philosophy; how much easier would it be to just decide that our friends are just temporarily deluded. Yet, when discover that with every encounter someone in fact holds up a mirror for us, we get a priceless chance to break out of our old patterns.

And if we struggle with the friendly advice of people we care for, how much harder it is to react to our so-called enemies. Yet, people who are angry at us often reflect something about ourselves that we hide inside. Their anger fit in fact gives us a shot at getting it out of our system. The same is true if we are mad at someone; most likely we overlook something about them; a new perspective, an alternative story of who we are and who they are. When we feel anger inside, we should always know that we are violating our  spiritual nature at this moment. Chances are we could choose love by adjusting our perspective just a little. Unfortunately, change is hard to come by. How much easier it is to just be angry instead!

We spiritual folks need to remind ourselves that we are on a demolition course to advance. We aim to break down our artificial self-image, which is an inconvenient and tiresome job. In fact, we never could do it on our own. The ordinary folks down the street will always tell a story of black and white, in and out, friend and foe just because that's the easy way to do. We - faced with identical struggles - have made it a mission to be more flexible that that. We are not saying that this journey is always easy, but we always have Justin Timberlake's promise that we are going to be big with our sister walking next to us.

So let our brother take off the mask we are wearing. Yes, it may feel a little uncomfortable first, but our beautiful face will radiate so much brighter afterwards. Let's be grateful for every interaction today. Every encounter is meaningful independent of whether the feedback is positive or negative. Brother, thank you for holding a mirror up for us!

By Christian and Su Zhen

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