I See Men As Trees

 

My joy has been increasing year after year. Isn’t that odd? If I believed that I was this limited form, I suppose I would be very anxious about the future. Until recently, I thought the ego and the self were two ways to discuss the same event. Of course, we are limited with words, but one way to think of the ego is to consider the story you find yourself starring in. Only you can really know this story. Parts of the story are your unexpressed thoughts. Something will eventually cross your mind which you will have to keep private. However, you know this thought; therefore, it is a part of your story. The entire story is written by you and it is read by you. You are the center of the story; a character where all else surrounds the character. That’s ego.

The other, similar word, is self, and when we distinguish the two words, for the sake of illumination, we see that the self is not the story or the character in the story, but it contains the subjective center where the ego resides, and the objective All, which cannot be reduced to a story. It is an imagined reality. Nothing is there, but everything is believed to be there. The self is spirit and The Spirit is the stage, the props, the audience, the lights, the action and all of the imagined parts.

Your story is being written on the “Etch A Sketch” which is all contained inside your red frame. The Spirit provides the “Spin Master” toy, and the story develops as you go your way. The ego lives out its complete story behind this partition, but as more of the story is told, more of the world beyond the screen is revealed. The aluminum dust is cleared from the partition and light comes in. 

The ego creates a part, from parts.

As humans, we don’t always know how we are being perceived by others. We tell one story, but the story is interpreted in hundreds of ways.

Have you ever looked at a photo of yourself and asked, “Do I look like that?”

Have you heard your own voice on a recording? Most people tend to be unpleasantly surprised by how their own voice sounds. It is possible to get beyond the unpleasantness, but why does your own voice seem strange when you finally hear it as others hear it?

It seems odd to you because it is slightly different from what you thought you’d projected.

“Do I sound like that?”

On the occasions where you find yourself looking back at your own performance, it’s easier to see how you may not be presenting yourself as you thought you were.

How many people compete on American Idol, only to be told they cannot sing? It’s very entertaining to see contestants who are completely convinced they can sing well enough to be the next big thing. Some contestants are really good performers, but some simply aren’t. I wonder how many contestants look at the recording of their moment in total disbelief.

Some actors don’t really care to watch their own portrayals. It seems best to let the audience decide.

In short, the ego is a play while The Self contains the ego as well as the playback.

Life is a stage. You are a Marionettist, and you sit on a platform, behind the valance. Your egoic protagonist and all others are connected to your multidimensional controller. Down on the stage, placed at an angle, there is a mirror. You play the many parts, but believe yourself to be only one of the actors. The mirror reflects the scenes being performed by you. The props were all made by you and the entire story was planned by you, as a way of entertaining you and growing you; and even convincing yourself that it is real. If you happen to be doubting the truth behind everything as I explain it, then you’ve done a marvelous job.

Plays like this can last for 100 years or more. Some are cut short. Not to worry. You are not any of the characters affected; but all of them. When this story ends, the characters are gathered up and recycled. But you climb down from the platform behind the valance and You begin to imagine the next stage.

This goes on forever. It has gone on forever. So why would I, an ego, believe that I have discovered this truth? Only because You, my invisible controller, have allowed me to. Little by little, I see men as trees.

“And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.” Mark 8:24-25.

Egos always have a tendency to see things one way until we’ve been restored; and then we all see things clearly.

In the old example above, it shows The Marionettist “making” his protagonist look up. Of course, if we could see the actual strings involved, we’d see the Master as he tugged on the nose and then the eyelids. That’s how He made the blind man see.

What does this mean for you and I? It means we are truly stars, playing the most important parts of this story. The most important of all parts is the part you play. If you do not think you are important, that’s good; the mirrors are working.

Are you thinking for yourself? No. It’s the other way around; the self is thinking for you. The sleight of hand gives you the illusion that you are you. It’s a perfect trick, and one I also believe to be real.

I cannot possibly imagine eternity, but let’s just try to imagine a universe which happens to be billions of years old. And let’s suppose consciousness sprang from the original, fundamental Love. By now, shouldn’t this Supreme Master be capable of playing many parts and believing them all to be real; to have make-believe friends; to have make-believe places and to have make-believe stories?

The Master is not only capable, but is also reading these very words, judging them from within the mind given to you, and believing that others are others. You believe you are you. You are; however you are also all of the otherness you perceive as you choose to see otherness as otherness. The play was designed by You, to be acted out by You, to entertain You and to be entertained by You.

You are All.

Your real name is “I Am”.