In my web browser, I have a tab set for the astronomy picture of the day. Often, the photos are of deep space. Viewing these photos is such a simple and refreshing way to remember that it’s not personal. The whole catastrophe is exploding, dying, being reborn–all of it, the play of awareness. These rays of the prism, these bodies–whether celestial, human, or microscopic–come and we go. That’s the way of it.

So why do we take it so personally? Because we have imagined ourselves separate from the whole–and created a “me” and a “you,” “mine” and “yours,” fences, territories, countries, and war.

Maybe–just maybe, if we are willing to look at our direct experience–prior to thought, prior to what anybody has told us we should believe–we’ll discover a simpler, clearer truth.

© Amrita Skye Blaine, 2012.
Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Burali, Tiziano Capecchi, Marco Mancini (Osservatorio MTM)