Mind, Matter, and You

You are the bridge between mind and matter. You tie the physical phenomena to the experience of it.

Look at this image. On one side there are the trees, the mountain, and the sky. On the other their reflection.

The lake, which is the reflective surface in this case, is not visible, other than as the reflection.

Let's use this as an analogy for mind and matter; the material realm and the mental realm. The mind is the reflection of physical processes.

But what allows for the reflection? For there to be a reflection, there must be a medium that reflects.

In the case of the reflection of light, this is a surface that itself can be seen. Be it a lake or a mirror, the boundaries can be seen.

But when all that is being seen is the reflection, and the medium of the reflection has no boundaries, then what?

Then the reflections can be seen, and the material realm can be inferred, but the factor that is in contact with both realms remains present but unseen.

This is the gap in knowledge. The inexplicable point of contact. The Singularity beyond all experiences, and all laws of physics.

The sentient Self. Sentience itself.

This is the factor that spans mind and matter. The Perfect Mirror. Reflecting the processes taking place in the physical realm as these streams of consciousness.

Look at this image again. The curious or investigative mind becomes obsessed with either side. The mountains or their reflections. The material realm or the mental and spiritual realm.

But hardly anyone inquires into that borderline; that thin silver line where the two realms meet.

That is where the meaning of God is understood. Where Identity is found. Where the nature of Reality is revealed. Becomes crystal clear.

But this analogy of reflections, like all analogies, is not not perfect. Because Sentience is not merely reflecting phenomena in the way a mirror does.

The physical phenomena being reflected are not something outside of Sentience. If there was a realm truly outside, there would be no point of contact. And physical phenomena would not result in experience.

There would be no relationship between mind and matter.

In this case, the phenomena and their reflections are contained in the one Reality. This common Reality is precisely why they can be experienced.

And so mind and matter are not two entirely separate domains. They are two aspects of the same phenomena. Two sides of the same coin.

Now, consider your own Self.

No part of the body or the mind is you. And the body and mind are really just a collection of parts. The aggregates or heaps. The Skandhas, as they say in Buddhism.

But you are not an aggregate. You are clearly singular.

You're neither material, nor mental. You're neither the object, nor its image.

You are the Unseen. The medium on which the images appear.

Yet the images leave no lasting impression, for each one lasts for only a moment.

You remain as You have always been. The self-shining mirror of Sentience.