Thoughts on these reflections..reflections on this illusion
R. Dafremen


So many of the mighty masters, the great teachers, give us these words:

"This world is but a reflection, this life is an illusion."

What DO they mean? Yes, it has become glaringly, painfully, invisibly obvious that there are phenomenon
which a puny little brain will never be able to adequately explain, but what of the illusory nature of all that this
body can see smell, taste, feel and hear? Where is this illusion; this reflection? What lies beyond the veil?

Not 'HOW can it be demonstrated.' Not 'where can its signs be viewed.' Those are only ripples in the pool.
These proofs to the conscious mind serve only as tantalizing illusions themselves, for by definition,
if the mind can perceive of them only through the senses, aren't they then, simply neural illusions?

No, there must be a simpler, more straightforward meaning to this paradox. The great teachers knew something.
What they knew has such profound implications that they couldn't come straight out with it. But why?
Is it that they couldn't put it into words? No, that's not it. It's been put into volumes and volumes of words.
Books and books and libraries worth of words. Always though, instructions for how the blind might walk through
the illusion and appear to the sighted. Always how the children could walk among adults in a pseudo half-sleepwalk.

"Follow these rules." "Reach this way of thinking." "Bring yourself to regard that in this way", they tell us.
Where though is this leading? What is the nature of this illusion? Where is this maze headed and if it cannot be
seen or explained outside of it's most esoteric definitions, how can it matter? Does it matter?Damn straight it
matters. Not only that, but it can be explained. Thank the good Lord for moments of lucidity. Thanks be for a glimpse
of the reality behind the curtain. Thanks for letting our tiny minds see beyond the veil.. if only for a moment.

And now, for the trick: Words to describe the deceptively simple.

Matter does nothing. Matter is nothing. Matter is a puppet on the end of a whim. Matter is a dance of sand castles
tossed along by the waves, the waves by the breeze, the breeze by ENERGY. We are the energy which moves this
matter. We are the energy which creates this illusion. We are not the bodies that stare back at us in the mirror. That is
the illusion. THAT is the reflection. We are that which moves those bodies and more than that, we are the ENERGY in
emotion that creates the thoughts which move them. When we give in to craving, we are allowing the puppet to pull the
strings. We allow the slave to drive the master. The desires, created by chemical interactions within a dirt brain,
become the routers and diverters of electrical signals created by the spirit; that concentrated pool of energy which is
WE..US..YOU AND ME.

It's all a big fat dead nothing without ENERGY, and the energy? The energy is all. No energy, nothing. No whirling
electrons around nuclei, no lights to trip fantastic. The ENERGY is the reality, the matter is just energy that has been
TRAPPED in a dead end. Around and around in circles go electrons courting their nuclei, moons around planets,
planets around stars, stars around galaxies, forever pulling us in.

Matter is the death of energy. Matter absorbs energy. Forever trapping the energy in endless repetitive circles. Forever
working it's way to heavier and heavier elements that trap more and more electrons...more and more energy...more and
more of US.

In the core of the Earth? The heavy metals. In the core of the Sun? Heavier elements. The reaction of the Sun?
Releases US from that matter and we are allowed a chance..a chance to avoid the trap. A chance to LIVE. Plants take
US in and are ALIVE. They are our kin in this, but it doesn't stop there.

On to the animals...the wild animals and the human ones. Our kin, alive because WE are in them. That's US. You and
me living out our ways in front us. That's US shooting out of that computer screen in the form of electrons. But to
what end?

Here then is the call of the Path. That ENERGY trapped in matter act, not as matter...but as ENERGY. Not pulling in,
selfish, greedy, trapping, denying escape, denying freedom, thinking only of sucking more into itself. Not focused on
itself and how to get what it wants. But as ENERGY, releasing, driving, giving, sharing, nourishing, sacrificing...we are
energy and we are all. One light bulb gives all that we can see. One sound wave shares it's symphony with everything
within miles. The heat of a fire warms all around it. Energy gives and shares and is one with everything around it.

Are the eyes of our personal version of God upon us? Are we found to resemble dirt? Or are we more like energy? Are we real? OR are we reflections moved about by the real? Will we die as dirt? Or as living energy will we unlock the door to what WE are? Alive!

The veil has been parted, the curtain is gone. Now what?

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"But what does that mean dad? I mean, we are light?!"

My daughter was having a hard time getting her head around this idea. Perhaps it was a bit much to expect from a 14 year old, perhaps not. Parents have a responsibility to teach. This is my responsibility to my children. Each to their own children, in their own way. So rolling up my sleeves, I headed down that unblazed trail and sought to find the words to answer her many questions. Perhaps we both learned a lot this morning. Perhaps I learned more than she did. Perhaps we'll all learn a bit from it.

"You think you see my hand moving?", I said waving my hand in front of her face.

"Yea," she said with a smirk.

"Wrong. What you see is light being reflected off of my hand. Not only that, but you are seeing only a PORTION of that light. The rest is being absorbed by this hand. If it were all being reflected, my hand would look like chrome."

"Huh?"

"Yea, this hand actually looks like nothing. It's the light that looks like something. Without light, you see nothing. Without energy, nothing. You wanna see what my hand REALLY looks like without light?"

"Sure."

"Close your eyes", I say, and she obliges. "That is what my hand looks like. Nothing."

"Yea but I can feel it though!"

"Guess again! What you are feeling are electrical impulses; energy that races up your arm to your brain. Wanna know what my hand feels like? Stick your fingers in ice water for an hour or so until they're numb. That's what matter feels like. Nothing."

"So matter is nothing?"

"Oh it's something alright, it's a trap for energy. You know what the model of an electron looks like right?"

"Yea. Protons, neutrons, electrons."

"That's matter, right?", I ask.

"Yea. Right."

"Well, not exactly. That's energy trapped. That's energy running in neverending circles. Kinda like your old Dad, going
back and forth from work to home. Kinda like watching professional sports. Over and over and over again. Like an
illusion of something, that turns out to be nothing because it just starts over again. And the energy can't get out of that trap unless some more energy comes along and helps it get out."

"Huh?"

"Oh yea, and it takes a great deal of energy to set just one electron free. But when it's free, it's very powerful. It can free more and they can free more. It can be a reaction, but FIRST, you have to have enough energy to get it started."

"Cool. Like a nuclear explosion?"

"Yea. There's an example. People that behave like the light that they are, instead of the dirt that their brain is made of and that their world seems to be made of, are another example. They add energy to get momentum going, momentum to change the people around them, to help free the light in them too."

"Ok, I'm confused? What do WE have to do with light?"

"You ARE light love. You are not that body. You are not that brain, or those thoughts that run through it. That's all just
dirt..matter. It absorbs, implodes in on itself and takes. It is want want want. (Of course..mine is too.) But us? We are
light. We are what makes this matter move. We are the energy behind the illusion of life in this lifeless matter. It would
be easy to demonstrate, except for one big problem.."

"What's that?"

"There is no way for you to show me what you are, other than through the matter that makes up your brain and your body. You have no other way of showing your true self to me. I have no way of knowing whether you are really light, or just more dirt. No way except by observing your thoughts, words, emotions and your ACTIONS. If you ACT like dirt, if you are greedy, self absorbed, dark, negative, taking and sucking the life and the joy from others, then you are, as far as anyone can tell, dirt. Because dirt takes and absorbs. Dirt wants more and more and more."

"That wouldn't be good..and if I act like light?"

"You ARE light. And if you can somehow fight past all of the urges and limitations of a dirt brain, and a dirt body and a
dirt world and STILL behave like light..giving indiscriminately, without end, all you have to give?

If you spread joy and contentment, if it goes out from you instead of focusing on you; warming and lighting the way for others, well then love...there MUST be light within that dirt shell, because matter cannot behave like energy. Only energy behaves like energy. Then we would know that we are looking at YOU, the light."

"Woah! That is crazy! So what you mean is, this is all a trap?! And if we get stuck in the dirt, we end up like those electrons?"

"Like the electrons stuck around the nucleus, like the penniless couple stuck in the city, like the Moon stuck in orbit
around the Earth, like the Earth stuck around the Sun, like the Sun stuck around the galaxy. If you don't find a way out of
this trap, if you cannot stay true to the light that is in you; you belong to matter and your energy will be trapped. The YOU
in you, will be lost."

"Riiight."

"A very wise man once said: 'You are the light of the world.' He didn't have science books. People back then
didn't know about energy, or the nature of light. But he KNEW. He explained this the best he could with what he had to
work with. Remember a song that went something like.. This little light of mine..?"

She nods..and joins in.

"I'm gunna let it shine.. This little light of mine I'm gunna let it shine. Hide it under a bushel..No!"

"Exactly. This body and this brain is the bushel basket. It is the matter that tries to hide your light. We were told that no
man lights a light so that he can hide it under a bushel. You are light. You were not given this chance to live so that you
could behave like dirt..you were given this chance to be alive, so that you could shine. So let it shine, baby girl."

"I'll try dad. I'll really try."

"Me too darlin...I really will, from now on...I'm going to be light!"

Shine people...let it shine.
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"So awake, reflect, watch, work with care and attention. Live in the way and the light will grow in you."
- Buddha

"The Light is one of the ninety-nine Beautiful Names of Allah. Light is that by which things become known. Things may exist in the dark, but they cannot be seen. Light may be physical, such as the light of the sun or the moon, or intelligible, like the light of the intellect. The latter is that which illuminates the darkness of ignorance with the light of knowledge. Total darkness is non-existence, thus light is that which brings created beings out of non-existence into existence."
- Prophet Muhammad

"You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can't be hidden. Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men;
that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
- Jesus of Nazareth

"And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?"
- The Book of Mormon

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."
-Buddha

"Tell me, if Allah were to make the night to continue incessantly on you till the day of resurrection, who is the god besides Allah that could bring you light? Do you not then hear?"
- Prophet Muhammad

"If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light.”
- Jesus of Nazareth

"If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!"
- The Book of Mormon

"Those whose minds are thoroughly practiced in the factors of enlightenment, who find delight in freedom from attachment in the renunciation of clinging, free from the inflow of thoughts, they are like shining lights, having reached final liberation in the world."
- Buddha

"Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth; a likeness of His light is as a niche in which is a lamp, the lamp is in a glass, (and) the glass is as it were a brightly shining star, lit from a blessed olive-tree, neither eastern nor western, the
oil whereof almost gives light though fire touch it not -- light upon light -- Allah guides to His light whom He pleases, and Allah sets forth parables for men, and Allah is Cognizant of all things."
- Prophet Muhammad

"Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up -- that which ye have seen me do."
- The Book of Mormon

"Seeing your body as no better than an earthen pot, make war on Mara with the sword of wisdom, and setting up your mind as a fortress, defend what you have won, remaining free from attachment."
- Buddha

"Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth. As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire. Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold. That path no bird of prey knows, Neither has the falcon's eye seen it. The
proud animals have not trodden it, Nor has the fierce lion passed by there. He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock, And
he overturns the mountains by the roots. He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing. He binds the streams that they don't trickle; The thing that is hidden he brings forth to light."
- From the Torah

"The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness."
- Jesus of Nazareth

"So no soul knows what is hidden for them of that which will refresh the eyes; a reward for what they did."
- Prophet Muhammad

"Behold, do men light a candle and put it under a bushel? Nay, but on a candlestick, and it giveth
light to all that are in the house."
- The Book of Mormon

"God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness."
- from the Torah

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Since this was written, a few revelations have come along. The first being that there is an essential relationship between light and matter. Without matter, light moves in straight lines. There is no variety. There are no combinations. It is matters primary function to A) Redirect energy to randomize its direction B) Act as a "holding" place until enough energy can be built up for the next step. The corruption & stagnation that tends to precede social revolutions being one example. The climbing of a flight of stairs being another. The energy allows us to take the next step, but the matter(your feet and legs) holds that step, until enough energy is produced to take the next. In the end, this relationship is what produces the basic mechanism of evolution...and evolution is the name of the game. Not just physical, but especially emotional and spiritual evolution.

Daf
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