OPINION & CONSCIOUSNESS

We all have opinions. We have opinions on just about everything, and as far as we are concerned, our opinions rule.

Let's put that assumption to a simple test.

Pick a calm. clear moonlit night, and find a space out in the open, well out of earshot of neighbours -- you don't want potentially embarrassing attention from the constabulary.Don't worry, I'm not suggesting you do anything illegal......

Look up at the moon and stars above you. Then look around you at the trees, bushes and anything else natural that you can see in the vicinity. When you are ready, give everything around you your opinions on anything and everything you can think of. Don't hold back.Give it all the energy you've got. Keep going until you are completely exhausted -- of opinions, ideas, beliefs and energy. When you are finally finished, watch the moon, the stars, the trees and anything else around you very closely. ........

See if you can detect just how much the universe moves in response to your almighty opinions.

Get it?

Good. I get that you've got it.

Opinions and knowledge are constructs of the mind. Truth includes what's on your mind, but it is not from the mind. Truth is what you become aware of when the mind is still.

Opinions are what we're certain we know about. We treat them as Truth and expect everyone else to do likewise. We could hardly be more mistaken.

Truth lies inside what is not-known. When what we think we know subsides into silence, the unknown comes naturally. I love silence. I feel totally at home here in silence.

Consciousness is aware of opinions -- the judgments and prejudices of an over-active mind. Consciousness is a mirror.

THE MIRROR OF CONSCIOUSNESS

A mirror has no opinions. That's why we can rely on it. A mirror does not subvert what it sees. It is not selective. A mirror simply mirrors what-is. That is its nature.

Mind, on the other hand, is like a photographic print. It captures a fleeting glimpse only once and hangs on to its processed image. It carries dead information. Beautiful maybe, but limited and ossified. Dead memory, and the information never changes except to go brittle and fade over time.

A mirror reflects and then is empty, ready always to let go and receive something anew. There is no desire to cling onto anything. There are no concepts, ideas, opinions or beliefs to clutter its reflection. It comes to each moment clear and unattached to anything that has gone before.

How blissful to be a mirror!. But I also have a mind -- a thick soup of considerations.

And mind cannot be here/now because here/now is not part of time. A now moment is eternal and simply is as it is.... now. A mirror is always here now -- it cannot be anywhere else.

I am both mirror and mind. And I am that which is aware of that, and content for it to be so.

So, too are you.