The Mind's Blind Spot and the Self

Consider what it would be like if there was an experience to being the Sun. What would the universe look like from the point of view of the Sun?

You would see yourself floating in space, in this utter darkness. And in there you would see these pinpricks of light, so very far away.

And you may wonder what makes these beautiful little things shine. You may stare in amazement and be oblivious of where the light comes from.

This is the state in which most minds exist.

There is a mental blind spot.

And once you're aware of this blind spot you see how it affects every aspect of your life. How it drives all of human society.

So, the process to understand that there is this blind spot, and to cater for it, is somewhat similar to the optical blind spot you're taught about when you go to learn driving. Your rear view mirrors and your side mirrors they leave a blind spot to your sides.

And you are taught this movement to look over your shoulder to check your blind spot.

And in the beginning as you learn to drive you theoretically understand this, but often you'll get shocked to see that there is something there that you were totally oblivious of. Right next to the side of your car.

And then as you get used to this movement it becomes natural.

You're doing it instinctively. You're catering for the blind spot.

So, most spiritual and wisdom traditions are based on pointing out this mental blind spot and catering for it. A lot of the techniques and so on, the rituals, they are based on building instinctive and intuitive ways to adjust how the mind behaves.

Anyway, we can go directly to what the blind spot is and then deal with it.

So, let's say you see a beautiful face, or you see a sunset, or hear a beautiful piece of music. You can very clearly appreciate that beauty. The beauty of the phenomena you're observing.

But have you considered, how beautiful is the one that perceives beauty?

You can't see that one. That's the one looking. The one feeling the beauty.

How beautiful is that one?

How beautiful are you that make the experience of beauty possible.

And I'm not talking about you as a person here. I haven't seen your face. I don't know who you are.

But I do know what you are.

The very core of you. The sentience that appreciates, that knows the beauty. That makes it possible.

See, the mind is always turned outwards. It focuses on the external phenomena.

And if we think in terms of light, you can say it focuses on the reflections.

But do you know that you have never actually seen daylight?

You only observe its reflections.

Daylight itself remains unobservable. Invisible.

And that is the nature of light; you can never see it but it is there making everything visible. Illuminating it.

That is why the sun sees darkness all around it.

But that darkness is filled with light.

When you look at the moon at night, you're seeing the part of that light that is being reflected. But beyond the boundaries of the moon, in that darkness, there's vast quantities of light completely ignored by the mind.

So now consider the sun looking upon the planets, and seeing maybe the moon come between it and the earth. And it would see a shadow fall upon the earth, and it is that shadow which proves the source of light; the direction where it's coming from. It comes from the sun.

And as the sun realizes it, it comprehends its own self-luminosity.

And that realization doesn't make it arrogant. Doesn't make it think it is the only source of light.

It connects it to all the other stars in the galaxy that it has been gazing upon.

It is the very same light.

It connects the sun to the source of all stars. To the source of the universe itself. Where it all began.

The source of light.

The source of consciousness.

All of it.

This is the realization of true beauty.

Not just the beauty of transient phenomena, but of the Reality underlying all phenomena, whether it be joy or sadness, it is all being made possible by that one Reality shining constantly, unchanging.

Beauty is not just about the sensory phenomena, not just about appearances, it is an appreciation of Reality and your place in it.

When a mind becomes like this sun, when it knows what "I" refers to, where this light is coming from, that is an appreciation of true beauty.

So let's make this a bit practical. Let's train the mind to check its shoulder.

In that movement; that mental movement, is this question,

"What am I?"

What is this "I" being referred to in the mind? Be a bit more aware of what that is. Pull a bit of the attention back from the object of beauty to the observer of beauty.

And much like the shadow of the moon upon the earth was the proof the sun had of its own self-luminosity, the proof here isn't a new kind of experience or something you observe.

It is to notice your own position, your own place, in this grand scheme of things.

It's often found at the borderline of sleep and waking up, or as you're in meditation, or as you're lost in some activity where your mind is fully occupied, the question, as you train your mind, will pop up,

"What am I?"

And in that instant, without looking directly at it, by being it, you'll know what I'm getting at.

So there's no real practice or a lot of effort to be applied here. It's only a tacit understanding. It comes from the heart.

It's a heartfelt appreciation of Reality and your place in it.

It is the realization that you are not separate to Reality.

That you are at no distance to the source of this universe.

And like the sun when it realizes that it's connected to all the other stars, and owes its existence to the very same Reality, it owes its self-luminosity to the laws of Nature, then there is no space left for an ego. No sense of separation from Reality.

And then, when the time comes, when the sun's fuel runs low and it's time to go nova; to explode and disperse back into the void, the sun will do so willingly and happily, because it knows that it is only returning Home -- the ground state of Reality.

What All really is before it's shaped into something observable.