Magnifying glass metaphor

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spatial, modified 5 Years ago at 7/19/18 8:10 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 7/19/18 8:08 AM

Magnifying glass metaphor

Posts: 614 Join Date: 5/20/18 Recent Posts
The following metaphor occurred to me this morning as I was meditating. It describes the experience of progressing through the stages through Dissolution. I believe I have gotten past this stage, but it is too murky for me to really describe it. I would be curious to know if anyone finds this useful, or has anything to add or change. (Note: This is just a description of my personal experience over the past several weeks, not a claim that this is somehow an accurate model of the stages)

Imagine your reality is a painting on the wall in front of you, and you are holding a magnifying glass in your hand.

You look at the painting and take it in as you would any painting. This is your default state.

You pick up the magnifying glass and notice that if you hold it up to the painting, you can see more detail. This is pretty cool, because it helps you see the painting better. These are the stages of Mind & Body and Cause & Effect.

Then, you bring the magnifying glass closer, and you realize that you can now see flaws in the painting. This is Three Characteristics.

You keep zooming in, and suddenly the flaws stop bothering you, because you see that, on a microscopic level, the painting is actually quite interesting, flaws and all. It may even be more fun than the original painting. This is Arising and Passing Away.

Now, you start exploring the rest of the painting, trying to get a sense of how it all fits together. Things get a little weird here, because you have been staring at the magnifying glass for so long. You are so zoomed in that you can no longer see the big picture, even though you are indeed taking in everything. This is Dissolution.

What happens next is that your mind starts piecing together a new big pixture, based on the zoomed-in detail that you have seen. Because you have seen so many flaws that you had not noticed before, those flaws get incorporated into the big picture. Now, however, it is worse, because it is not restricted to the small lense of the magnifying glass.

I'll leave it to someone who is more familiar with the territory after this point to finish my story.