Reflections and Extensions

Lesson 49

“As above, so below” is a famous hermetic principle. So much of external reality is a reflection of our internal condition. So much of our visible behavior fractals out from our invisible internal environment, or even from a singular past event in some cases. You can become an effective mind-reader by simply watching someone’s body language and behavior.

This lesson is not about becoming a mind-reader. However, it is about learning how to read reality. I don’t have reality completely figured out, and I am not claiming to, however I have noticed some fascinating things. One thing I noticed is how much of the external reality is a reflection of the internal condition. It is like we all have a personalized filter that largely influences how we see and experience reality. Two people can be in the same room, but have a totally different experience — all depending on their mind filters.

Another thing I noticed was thanks to studying yoga philosophy. Remember how your relationship with an object is more important than the object itself? Similar to the example above, two people can use the same object, or tool, and have totally different outcomes. Again, it all comes down to how they see and experience the object, or tool.

Knowing this, working on your internal environment (mindset) is one of the largest factors in determining how you see life, and how you seize life’s opportunities. In many ways, life will be a reflection of who you are. Further, your internal environment is one of the largest factors in determining how you use objects and tools. The better you are, the better the result from the object or tool. They are extensions of who you are.

This has been slightly more abstract than other lessons, but it gets crazier. Like the mind-body connection is a two-way street, so is the connection between external reality and internal condition. Ayurveda is a sister school of yoga. Some people view it as the yoga of nutrition, but there is much more to it. However, one of the most important lessons from Ayurveda has to do with nutrition, but maybe not in the way you would expect.

In Ayurveda, we learn that we are not just what we eat, but we are what we feed all of our senses — especially the eyes and ears. In essence, your mind becomes what you put in your eyes and ears. This is critical to understand, especially in the Information Age. If you feed your eyes too much chaos, craziness, distraction, and trauma — that is what your mind becomes. 

Delving deeper, I want to share my infinite buffet visualization with you. Imagine you are at your favorite restaurant and they have the largest buffet ever set up (even if they don’t typically have a buffet). This is all imaginary, but to show something powerful. You eat three or four full plates of your favorite foods. How would you feel? It would probably be hard to move for a little bit. Again, this is all imaginary and hypothetical, but lets now say you had 10 plates of your favorite foods. What about 50 plates, or 100 plates? I know that is impossible, but imagine how painfully full you would be — to the point where you are basically in a coma, unable to move at all.

Many of us are eating 100 plates (or more) with our eyes and ears daily. We are at the infinite digital buffet. The body is to moving as the mind is to thinking. Like when your body is too full and it becomes hard to move, when your mind is too full it becomes hard to think. The infinite buffet visualization is a profound way to see what your mental diet may look like, and what it may be doing to your ability to think.

Before closing this lesson, I want to address something important. There are things in reality that are not a reflection. Life can be beautiful, but life can also be devastating. There is definitely a strong element of randomness to reality that is honestly really messed up. How else can you explain things like earthquakes and tornados? The victims of natural disasters didn’t first imagine it, and it wasn’t a reflection of their consciousness. I am not a gambling man, but there is an element of chance to life that I cannot ignore. Having a great mindset is a good bet, but nothing is 100% guaranteed here.