Life is like one of those 3D dot pictures (aka autostereogram).
You can spend all your time looking at the dots, never seeing the image. Most of us spend our whole lives looking only at the dots.
But if you stare long enough or know what to look for suddenly the image appears.
Applied to our lives, the dots stand for the minutiae of our lives — all the stuff that keeps us occupied and busy.
That’s not all the dots stand for.
If we zoom out of the content of our lives, we encounter another type of dots — the senses. The senses are what the content of our lives rests upon.
Without seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling, and thinking we wouldn’t have this multidimensional experience. Without sense experience, we couldn’t worry about tomorrow and cry about yesterday.
Here is where we have to invert the 3D dot picture analogy.
At this point, it would be easy to say that the content of our lives is the 3D image and the senses are the dots.
That’s exactly the illusion.
In actual 3D dot pictures, the dots are what enable us to see the image in the first place. But the 3D image of our lives is not found as the sum of the dots (content and senses). The 3D image of our lives is found in each individual dot.
So it’s the other way around. The 3D image allows us to see the dots.
It’s in every experience as the enabler of the experience and the experience itself.
What is it that is here no matter what?
Many of us are so identified with the dots of our lives we believe we are dots ourselves. Though the 3D image is infinitely large and no one can miss it, a single dot can manage to hide it like a penny can blot out the sun.
Are you aware of the 3D image smiling behind every dot?
Don’t take anyone’s word for what the 3D image looks like. Look for yourself.
Look at a tree and it’s there. Listen to a sparrow and it’s there. Feel an affectionate touch and it’s there. Smell some freshly ground coffee and it’s there. Taste a pineapple and it’s there. Reminisce about beautiful experiences and it’s there as well.
I mentioned nice experiences but the 3D image of our lives doesn’t depend on that.
Look at a war zone and it’s there. Listen to the screams of suffering children and it’s there. Feel someone’s fist in your face and it’s there. Smell the sickening smells of a gutter and it’s there. Taste a moldy piece of raw meat and it’s there. Worry about the future and it’s there as well.
As with autostereograms, there’s a trick to seeing it.
You’re not looking, listening, feeling, smelling, tasting, thinking for something. It is the -ing. It’s the function itself.
No matter what dots we’re looking at, the 3D image is always there.
Of course it’s not really an image. It’s not an object at all (even calling it “it” is saying too much), which is exactly why the mind struggles with accepting it. The moment you start objectifying it you’re talking about a dot.
The non-objective featureless 3D image-ing is what we are. But not we, as in a multitude of separate entities. Only pure subjectivity, as in “I”.
Every sentient being can say it.
I can say it. You can say it. The pigeon outside my window is saying it right now.
It’s beyond simple. It’s that which can’t be simpler. It’s the truth, our true nature.
Call it Consciousness, Awareness, Tao, God, Presence, Being, or its negations, and slap all the capital letters you want in front of it. Call it what you will but don’t mistake the word for its actuality.
Every word is misleading because it has a meaning beyond the immediate present experiencing. Every concept contains untruth. This, what we are talking about, is truth.
Immediate present experiencing, before you try to take hold of it, before you try to conceive and conceptualize it, is it. It’s irrefutable because to refute it, it must be there.
But why should you care?
Why should you want to find the 3D image amidst all the dots?
Because it’s all we deeply want from life beyond the fleeting pleasure fulfillment.
By understanding and accepting that you are not a dot but the 3D image (that is everything), you remember that you are already whole and fulfilled.
You have arrived at home.
You see beyond the illusion of separation.
You recognize that you and the world are one unified existence.
Nothing can take away from you or add onto you. That, naturally, leads to peace.
You are at peace with the dots in your life because you know yourself as the 3D image dreaming up all the dots.
You’ll find yourself moving through life differently.
You’ll be in awe and wonder at the mystery that is life.
You’ll look at every dot and know you’re only ever looking at yourself.
The questions that used to torment you will evaporate leaving no trace as if they never had existed.
Every step you make will disappear the moment you make it. A feather will seem heavy in comparison.
You will know that life is an optical illusion and yet, (you’ll cherish it, knowing) it’s the only reality there is.
Luka
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Hi Luka, thank you for this thought provoking post!
What would you say is the relationship between consciousness and the five senses?
Thanks for your comment, Geetha! Well, the five senses are consciousness in action. In other words, there is no relationship between consciousness and the five senses because the five senses are nothing but consciousness.
Loving this allegory! Keep up the great work 😀
Cheers! 🙂
Thank you! Exactly the words I was looking for, the ing of everything!
I’m glad you liked it, Barb!
I’ve read a lot about what you are saying is true.
I find that I keep trying to escape my conditioning even though intellectually I’m aware that I am that conditioning.
I guess I’m just stuck in my intellect
It’s really cool to hear such old understanding being shared nowadays…
Everyone seems to prefer doing it differently than this
Thanks for your comment, Stephen. The intellect can be a powerful tool but also a big hindrance. Essentially, it really is too simple for the mind.