The Environment As A Mirror

THE ENVIRONMENT AS A MIRROR

I know that this way of looking at things may at first be very unfamiliar, but the familiarity of an utterance should not be seen as a measure of its truth. The so-called environment is in reality a mirror, in which each person experiences only himself. He can never see anything other than himself in it because, out of that objective totality which is the same for all of us he filters out only that for which he has an affinity. Anyone who is not aware of this fact falls inevitably into erroneous attitudes.

When I look in my mirror in the morning and see a face looking at me in an unfriendly manner, I can, if I wish, scold this face because of its unfriendliness. The face will however, in no way be influenced by this but will merely scold back with equal vehemence. In this way it is easy to escalate matters mutually until eventually I hit out at the grim face in front of me and shatter the mirror. In fact no one would do such a thing in the case of a bathroom mirror because we know how a mirror works. Yet nearly all of us do the same thing resolutely in everyday life. We struggle against our enemies in the world, against unpleasant neighbors and relatives, against unjust treatment from our superiors, against society as a whole and much else.

In fact what they are all fighting against is themselves, and therefore there can be no winners, only losers, for who can be the winner in a fight against a mirror-image?

The law of resonance applies in both a positive and a negative way. If, in our considerations, we cite only negative examples it is because this area is where human suffering arises. Most people come to terms quite happily with the positive side of fate. Once a person has become aware of the mirror-function of his environment, he finds an unsuspected source of information available to him. Even if we can only see ourselves in the mirror we nevertheless use the mirror because it can show us parts of ourselves that we could not see without its help.

Similarly the observation of our own environment and of the events with which we are confronted is one of the best methods of self-knowledge, for everything that upsets us in the outer world merely shows that we are not yet reconciled to the corresponding principle in ourselves. This is something that human beings are unwilling to recognize. Yet the fact that someone becomes angry over the greed of another shows with certainty that he himself is greedy. Otherwise it could not bother him. If he himself is generous why should he be concerned about the greed of others? He would be able to accept it without becoming worked up and upset.

When we look at the world objectively things are simply what they are. Grass is naturally green. Of course one an imagine grass to be red. But, in fact, it is green and this has its reason. No one gets excited about grass being green because it does not stir up any problem in human beings. That war exists in the world is a fact just like the fact that grass is green. But this is something that disturbs people; and so they begin to fight for peace. Always people “fight”' for things: for peace, justice, health, humanity.

Yet how much more simple and effective it would be if people were to create peace in themselves. Herein lies one of the most powerful tools for the one who knows how to use it. Each person is in a position to change and shape the world according to his or her conception, without struggle and without external force. Humanity needs only to change itself and the whole world will change with it. When I see the unfriendly face in the mirror I need only to smile and it will smile back – with absolute certainty. People always want to change the world but how many use the means that lead to real success? If a person changes his affinity he receives a new program and perceives a different world.

Every person lives in his own “world”. There are as many of these worlds as there are human beings. All these worlds are only fragments, aspects of the real world. The latter follows iron laws and is not impressed when mankind clamours for change. The external world is the most reliable source of information for the personal situation in which we find ourselves at any given time. When a person learns to take everything that happens to him and look for its real meaning, he will not only come to understand himself and his problems better but also discover the possibilities for changing things.

Whatever happens to us we should always immediately ask “Why is this particular thing happening at this particular time and to me in particular?” As long as we are not accustomed to formulating the question in this way the finding of the answer will appear difficult but with practice we soon learn to recognize the sense of events and to relate to it.

Psychologists use the term “paranoia” to describe a tendency found mostly in schizophrenics to relate every happening in the world to themselves. This pathological paranoia has, however, a non-pathological counterpart which we might call “positive paranoia”, that is, the ability to recognize that everything that occurs has meaning for the person who experiences it.

The more conscious someone becomes, the more he learns to see the pattern of things and to enquire about their deeper message. Thus the most important requirement is to be in harmony with everything that is. Whenever we fail to be in harmony we should look in ourselves for the reason. Man is a microcosm and therefore an exact reflection of the macrocosm. Everything that I can perceive I can find also in myself.

If I am in harmony with the different areas of reality within me I cannot be disturbed by phenomena corresponding to these areas in the outer world. If something unpleasant occurs to me this is merely a demand to turn the attention to the corresponding area within myself.

All those evil man and disagreeable events are in reality only messengers, mediums whose function is to make the invisible visible. Anyone who grasps this and is prepared to assume the responsibility for his own fate will lose all fear of being harmed by chance occurrence.

One of the main obsessions of our age is the need to have security against the eventualities of fate. The many forms that this security takes – from insurance policies to socialist political systems – share one goal: to prevent or alter the influence of fate through external measures. What stands behind all these efforts is fear. Yet it is only when we are prepared to confront fate, as human beings responsible to ourselves, that we lose our fear. A person cannot be murdered accidentally nor become rich accidentally. Neither can happen unless the person is ripe and possess the appropriate affinity. People strive for riches and at the same time neglect to make themselves ripe for wealth. Th esoterically-minded seek high and low for the right guru and the best system, forgetting that the guru comes of his own accord to the one who is ready.

It is enough for us to really need something and we shall receive it. Many will have experienced this on a small scale. Sometimes in life we are suddenly confronted by a subject whose existence we have previously ignored or even been hardly aware of. We might, for example, meet a specialist on the love life of ants and be astonished that there should be someone interested in such an out-of-the-way subject. Then somebody “coincidentally” sends us a book on this very subject. Soon afterwards we read an article in a magazine about the same thing. What is more we visit a friend of many years standing and learn for the first time that he is interested in the very same subject but has never spoken of it before.

Behind such “chains of coincidence”, which most of us have experienced in one form or another, lies nothing more nor less than the law of affinity and resonance. In this way one will receive, with absolute certainty, every book, every piece of information, every contact that one needs – if one really needs it and is ready for it. Without this necessary readiness all seeking and striving in the outer world is in vain.

Whoever changes himself changes the world. There is nothing in the world that needs changing but a great deal in ourselves which does. The esoteric way is a way of continual change, of transmutation from lead to gold. The wise man is in harmony with all areas of being and therefore lives in the best of all possible worlds. He sees reality and recognizes that everything that is, is good. He no longer seeks happiness; he has found it – in himself.