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We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute
of eternity. We are pain
and what cures pain, both. We are
the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.

I want to hold you close like a lute,
so we can cry out with loving.

You would rather throw stones at a mirror?
I am your mirror, and here are the stones.


~ Rumi (trans. Coleman Barks & John Moyne)

The mirror with its reflections is commonly used as a metaphor to describe the relationship between Tao and the ten-thousand-things. In the same way that the images are, essentially, none other than the mirror – the ten-thousand-things are, essentially, none other than the Tao.

Though at a certain point on the path we may eschew the perceptual/conceptual objects of self and world, in favor of establishing our identity as their nonconceptual Source – eventually all is welcomed, equally, within the celebration and eternal unfolding … The mirror in joyful embrace, effortlessly, of each and every reflection.

How wonderful!

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