The Prism of the Mind

Here is another tail from “The Flip Side.”  Get it?  Tail, as in heads or tails when you flip a coin?  Anyway, here it is.  Enjoy.

Have you seen what happens when light, pure white light passes through a prism? Here is a picture of what it looks like:

When light passes through a prism it is refracted or dispersed into all the colors of the rainbow. Each spectral color is still the light but appears to be different from the light. If the light doesn’t enter the prism, the rainbow goes away. The light is necessary for the colors and the colors are a manifestation of the light. Without the prism, the light would just be white. With the prism, the light is transformed into all of the colors. The light through the prism produces an infinite number of colors (once you take into account all the possible frequencies and shades of those colors). The white, pure light contains all the colors but the colors are not evident until the light is dispersed by the prism. The colors are not “something else” but are what white light becomes when it is transformed. The truth of this demonstration is the colors are the white light and could be nothing else but the white light. Still on this side of the prism we observe is the white light as colors. They appear to be separate but they are just a dispersion of the one. In this simple demonstration, it is obvious that the light is ever-present but can be perceived as something else on this side of the prism. The light is constant. Our perspective is altered because of the prism.

Jesus had a lot to say about light. Here are a few examples:

John 12:46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. (ESV)

John 3:19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (ESV)

The traditional view of light and darkness (as perceived by the illusory separate self) is the light is good and the darkness is bad. In the extreme, the light is good and the darkness is “evil.” Some might say the light produces righteousness and the darkness leads to damnation.

Now add the fallacy of original sin (which says we are all filled with darkness or evil) and our only hope for redemption is the brutal sacrifice of a perfect human, namely Jesus. Our inner darkness is our death sentence. The light of Jesus is our salvation. If we remain in the dark, loving our evil nature and our evil deeds, we will end up burning in the eternal fires of hell. If we believe in Jesus, then grace, or our good deeds, will purge us of the darkness, forgive our evil, and bring us into the light or goodness that hides us like a clean robe covering a disgustingly dirty body. The angry sky-god can’t look upon evil and can’t tolerate darkness so there is no hope for our eternal self apart from the saving work of Jesus.

That way of thinking may promote some kind of “good” behavior but I believe Jesus was pointing to something much more profound. I believe Jesus was pointing us to the truth of the light and our luminous nature that is hidden in the darkness of unconsciousness.

Why don’t we take a look at the flip side?

Just like the light through the prism, pure consciousness is dispersed to become all the manifestations we observe in the physical realm. The divine essence appears as a multitude of physical forms when it passes from the eternal into the temporal. When the infinite ONE manifests as the temporal, physical world, the infinite ONE appears as many but the many are still the ONE.

Our bodies are like those colors. Our personalities are like those colors. Our limited thoughts are like those colors. The prism is the transition from eternal to temporal. The prism is the divine manifesting as the physical or limited. Our limited minds are the prism of our thoughts and perceptions.

Imagine for a moment if you were one of those colors. You look around at the other colors and see something other than yourself. You see division and separation and categories and concepts and forms. You can’t see back through the prism. You aren’t aware of the light that is what you really are because all you see is your color. You begin to believe that all you are is the color you observe. You perceive yourself as a limited, one-of-a-kind color that is like no other while being completely oblivious to the light that is your essence.

The mind is a physical manifestation of the light. The mind can’t see the light that is the origin of its perceived existence. The mind can’t process or understand or even observe directly the light that precedes the thoughts that it produces. The mind is a physical form and is by definition limited to the physical form and the physical understanding of the physical perception.

But we aren’t the mind. We aren’t our thoughts. We aren’t our perceptions. We aren’t our interpretations or our stories or our experiences or our emotions or our conditioning or our person. We are consciousness itself. We are awareness. We are that which is aware of what we perceive and witness and experience. We are the observer. We are actually the light itself. Our mind can’t understand that truth but our true self already knows that truth. Our true nature is the light before the prism. Our true self is the essence that is before thought.

Jesus manifested the pure light. His physical expression was without the limits of a temporal transformation of the light. Jesus was what it looks like for a human form to be the light absent of a prism. He contained and radiated the pure light of the eternal truth. He was what the divine looks like when it is not limited by the illusion of separation. He was the light of the world…and so are we.

When we see Jesus as he really was and “believe” or are aware that we are the same, we wake up to the light that we are. We move beyond the limits of the physical form to embrace the limitless eternal essence that is our true identity. As we awaken, we leave the prism behind. Our minds become a tool to interact with the physical and no longer act as the prism that disperses truth as the illusion of a separate self. We are no longer an individual color but have the opportunity to experience forms as the formless. The light then shines through this form not only from the inside out but the outside in. Check out this verse:

Luke 11:36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.” (ESV)

As we awaken, we begin to shine with the light within and observe the light that is all around us. We no longer just see colors.  We see what makes the colors possible. We see the light in others no matter how unconscious or in the darkness they may be.

Now back to the verses in John (John 3:19-21). There are a few words that are key to understanding the truth that Jesus was trying to reveal.

I’ve discussed the word “evil” before, but as a refresher, remember the word “evil” is really unrest or struggle or friction. It’s like rubbing two sticks together to make fire. It is what powers the egoic illusion of a separate self. The ego subsists on the friction of conflict. The ego is in the business of fixing what is perceived as wrong. It is what the physical form needs to survive the physical world. It is the primordial instinct to get more of what it wants and reject what it doesn’t want. In the most basic sense, it is how we survive as a physical form. We need food to survive so the ego driven mind gathers the food it needs to survive often at the expense of another. The mind is used to solve survival problems. All of this is necessary as a form but when we identify with the egoic mind, we are unconscious of the truth of what we are. We are not a survival driven animal, but we get to experience the world through the human form. It is a tool to become aware of our true nature. If we are unconscious, lost to the illusion of a separate self, a color of the rainbow, we are motivated by conflict resolution. The creation of conflict to justify the egoic existence as an unconscious separate self is creating evil. It isn’t “bad,” as in the good-bad paradigm, but it is counter to the peace that is our true nature.

The words “light” and “darkness” are metaphors for awareness and unconsciousness. When we are aware of the awareness that we are, when we are conscious of the consciousness we are, when we are alert to our true nature, we are living in the light. When we are unconscious to the true self, lost in the illusion of a separate self, we are living in the darkness.

The deeds what we do, what we accomplish, how we perform as the physical form. When we are motivated by a separate-self illusion, our deeds are to create the conflict that the ego needs to justify its existence. When we identify with the egoic self, our deeds are struggle and suffering. When we see the physical as the tool it is and live from the light of awareness, our deeds and actions are manifestations of the light. The light is life, peace, joy, no struggle, no suffering, the unconditional acceptance of all things. When we perform from the truth of our true nature, we are shining the light. It doesn’t mean our circumstance is always utopian but as the dreamer observing the dream, our correct perspective is that of peace. We no longer desire to create conflict or rub those sticks together. We accept all that is as the light that is ever-present. We may see colors but we perceive the light.

Here is another way to see John 3:19-21:

John 3:19 This is the truth that brings conviction to our innermost being: the light or the truth of our nature is ever-present but the egoic mind is stuck in the darkness. It accepts the illusion as factual instead of seeing the light that is truth. The egoic mind wants to create conflict in its unconsciousness. When we are unconscious, we reject the truth. Our egoic minds can’t accept the truth and is terrified of the truth that will expose the illusion for what it is. However if we embrace the truth for what it is and let go of our egoic identity then what we do as the light is an expression of truth. (LLT)

The prism of the mind, when we identify with the mind, is a limitation that can be overcome. Our true self knows itself and is waking up to become aware of itself. The simple act of being aware of the truth of our nature shines this light on the illusion and exposes it for what it is. The egoic mind is deprived of the power that draws the attention of awareness into the illusion. The light that is within dispels the darkness and propels us into a greater experience of the light. It is an upward spiral that can’t be stopped once the light shines in the darkness.

Jesus revealed this truth and we can embrace this truth. We can look beyond the prism of the mind to know that the light we are has manifested as the color we used to think was our identity. In the next chapter we will take a look at the details of how the light expels the darkness and how we become aware of the awareness that we are. The unconsciousness is over. The light has come. The prism is no longer a limitation but has been overcome.

Yay God!

Lance