The Mirror of Our Mind

The perfect being employs their mind as a mirror. It grasp nothing, it refuses nothing, it receives but doesn’t keep. – Zhuang Zhou

Our True Identity is like a crystal clear mirror. 

However, most of the time our mirror-like mind is covered with dust – the dust of attachments, worry, anger, and jealousy, just to name a few. To clean the mirror we turn to our daily meditation practices, which sounds easy. But this is not always the case.

Imagine we have a cloth and we wipe the mirror clean. Now look at the cloth; it is all dirty from the layers of dust that were accumulated on the mirror. Therefore in our meditation practices, we might first get a bit dirty as all the old dust, which has been sitting there for ages, gets stirred up. In the beginning we might label this dirt as bad. But in fact, if we label it as bad, we start to get caught up with the dust and therefore, the dust falls back on the mirror again. 

Even if there are many layers of dust on our mirror-like mind, look beyond the dust; look at the mirror itself. The mirror-like mind can reflect everything, yet it never labels or judges. It just reflects everything as it is. Thus when the dust is stirred up and we get covered in some of the dust, let’s let go of labeling it bad or good. Just accept it as it is, like the mirror. If we simply accept the dust as it is, it will melt like snow in the blazing sun, and suddenly we can gain an insight into our True Identity.

By rediscovering our mirror-like mind, we start to live a life free from labeling and judging, which means our life will be full of inner joy and happiness. Because it is through labeling and judging that we get caught up in the dust.

But even if we wipe away the dust of our mirror-like mind in one big sweep, new daily dust keeps falling on our mirror. Therefore, we still have to keep on with our regular meditation practices, our daily dusting, so to speak.

What else happens we have rediscovered the crystal clear mirror of our mind?

Other people can start to see the reflection of their True Identity in it. Of course the other person needs to have a reasonably clear mirror as well, or else nothing will be reflected at all. But even one little gap within the dust can reflect the clarity of our True Identity. Place one crystal clear mirror opposite a dusty mirror that has one little clear patch in it. Within that one little clear patch, we can start to see the reflection of everything else within the other, clear mirror. Thus by remembering our own crystal clear mirror-like mind, we start to sow the seed for a world of wisdom and compassion, a world where wisdom and compassion can be reflected to infinity. 

Frans Stiene

Based in Holland, Frans Stiene teaches in North America, Europe, UK, Australia and Asia.
Frans is also the author of Reiki Insights, it is the continuation of his previous book The Inner Heart of Reiki, taking your personal practice and understanding of the system of Reiki yet another step deeper.

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