Reflection 66

Welcome!


God’s In, I’m Out

I remember Douglas Harding once telling me about a young boy he had met who had stitches in his face. This boy had described taking a mirror to school so that he could show his friends his stitches. Of course! For him his stitches were there in the mirror. There was another boy Douglas also once spoke about who said that the mirror was like a magnet – it pulled ‘all that stuff’ away from here to there. It’s like that, isn’t it? The mirror instantly locates your face there behind the glass, revealing you are completely free of it here this side of the glass. It’s a matter of being simple and honest and courageous enough to accept the truth you see rather than dismiss it because others tell you something different. The great German mediaeval mystic, Meister Eckhart, said: “God’s in, I’m out.” This is true. Whoever you are in appearance makes no difference. SEE the truth and you are free of that little one, the one in the mirror – it’s out there, not here. By simply LOOKING you step out of the prison of the little self into freedom – without harming or disposing of your human self at all. You simply locate your identity. The real problem of one’s human self is where it is, not what it is. SEE through the illusion that it is here and everything settles down into its rightful place – self there and no self here. A perfect arrangement. Suddenly a nightmare turns into the best-of-all-possible realities.

Warm regards,
Richard


Comments

Richard, I just want to say how grateful I am for these Course in Seeing emails. I read Douglas' On Having No Head back last summer and 'got it' but in a kind of raw state... I could see it but not sustain it nor see how to 'use' it. But over the months these emails take me back to the website where I read more and more, and back to reading On Having No Head... and more importantly to practise and experience. Of all the books I've read, words heard spoken, meditation undertaken, youthful mind-expanding experiences I've had, it is On Having No Head, in all it's all-or-nothing simplicity, which has given me a growing and tangible sense of self through no-self, and the sense of peace and receptiveness that comes with it. Very real and experiential changes, all at a time of great upheaval and turmoil in my life. Marc.


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