Reflection 63

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The Mirror Is Your Greatest Teacher

One of the greatest instruments of the truth that God is nearer to me than Douglas is the mirror, which takes that Douglas obstruction out of God’s way. My mirror is a marvellous, marvellous teacher, more valuable than all the scriptures of the world. (Face to No-Face, Douglas Harding, edited by David Lang.)

My mirror confirms this wide-openness right here where I am. The very thing which long ago put a face on me now relieves me of it. Now I look in the glass to see what I’m not like! (On Being Aware, article by Douglas Harding)

Last week a friend visited me. He was depressed and afraid of the future. I handed him a mirror and asked him to look at the face in that mirror. Who is that, I asked him. He said: “Well, it’s me, with a sad and pale face.” Then I asked if he could concentrate on the look with which he watched that face. I asked him if he could identify with that look, rather than with the face in the mirror. Much to my surprise he said yes. Until that day he had rejected anything I said about headlessness. This was probably a much more direct way. If this ‘look’ was him, really, I asked him what he could say about it. He said it had no properties, no features, but it was obviously his ‘nucleus’.

This morning, remembering that event, a new Seeing exercise came to my mind. I think it could demonstrate one’s Headlessness in a very simple way. Here it is:

Look at the face in the mirror. Let’s find out if that is you. Look closely, see if you recognise yourself there. It is a very familiar face. Is that really you? Now, close your eyes. What has disappeared? And what stays? Who is aware of the fact that the face in the mirror has disappeared. With what can you ‘see’ that the face has disappeared? Hans.


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