I’ve been looking at Adyashanti’s statement, “World views are self views, literally,” and following it down the rabbit hole. I remember years ago parroting the New Age belief that if someone sees something in another it actually resides within them … seeing another’s hate is seeing my self-hate; another’s perceived guilt is my own … you know the drill. Few of us missed that little bit of spiritual indoctrination.

So where does this rabbit hole go?

From the standpoint of non-duality, there is only This, you and I are This is form, there is no me or you, no self or other. There is however, the appearance of self and others. So which twist or turn could hide me and you in that warren. Living from that realization there is no place, no rabbit, no hole.

From the standpoint of duality it gets a bit juicier.

So standing in duality, a firm believer or not, what’s here? Can I truly only see myself, my feelings, my urges, my anger? I don’t know, can’t know another’s so perhaps that one gets a check by it, but is it really my stuff that I see in another?

Stopping, allowing myself to settle into duality, into the story, into my characters with no wiggle room — it’s a tight little rabbit hole — let me feel around and see. Hmmm. That’s sort of funny. Guess I’ll have to try harder, have to plump up a belief or two to get the game rolling.

This is kinda fun … intentional personhood … separation du jour.

Okay … here I go.

Conjuring up a hard-on, a rigidity, a judgement moment … a picture filled with righteous indignation … give me a moment here … lol. Laughing. This is harder than I expected.

I can’t seem to take this seriously and that’s what it requires, a seriousness that just ain’t here today.

So … I guess Adya was right. Our world view is our self view. If we are seriously focused on our self, our needs, our reaction to another, we spill that onto all the others in our world, can’t help it.

When we are kind of self-focused, a little bit serious, still hanging onto the idea of self and other, of a self with power to do, to achieve, to choose, even unconsciously … all those beliefs require a self 😉 … that spills over too, it just doesn’t appear to be as sticky, as forceful.

When the self is seen for what it is, when it’s hard to take it seriously, who knows what might spill over? It could be most anything including the experience of energy’s intensities, an inappropriate giggle, an apparent bloom of compassion, a knee-jerk reaction, the full-spectrum of life life-ing. Whether specifics are assigned to one aspect of life or not doesn’t really matter. 

Image: June Hider