Group question: The question this afternoon has to do with the so-called mirroring effect, where if you notice a feature, characteristic or behavior of another person that you do not like and you dislike the person for that behavior, what really is happening is that you are disliking some behavior or portion of yourself that is reflected back to you in the other person’s behavior. This could be an indication to you of an area where you have some work to do in acceptance of yourself, and what we are wondering is as you are more and more able to accept yourself for various types of previously unacceptable behavior that you have seen in yourself and in others, do you then begin to see others and the rest of the world and are able to accept yourself and others more easily. But is there a point beyond which you are observing correctly and the behavior is truly repugnant or that which deserves criticism and stands objectively by itself? How does one look at the self with this mirroring effect in mind when determining what is acceptable and what is not? We would appreciate any information that you could give us on this mirroring effect.
(Carla channeling)
Q’uo
We are known to you as Q’uo. Greetings and blessings to each in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator. We are most honored and privileged to be called to speak with this circle. We thank you for the beauty of your vibrations, for the dedication of yourselves to service and seeking the truth. We thank you most of all because we are those who have offered themselves in service by this communication as those upon your sphere begin more and more to awaken and find the heart hungry for truth and wholeness in a broken world, in a crumbling religious group of systems, in a fragmenting cultural nexus. We join many other energies and essences in our concern for your people, for there is an agony of the spirit that moves outward from those who are seeking, as do the ripples of the wave moving in time from one continent to another. So these ripples of distress came to our ears and we responded with this effort at continued communication through instruments such as this one.
We have only one truth to offer, one thought. All the rest is embellishment and various ways of discussing that thought and its implications. This thought is that which is a Logos, a Thought so creative and so primary that it forms that which is both Creator and created. That one great original Thought is Love. Within the system of organized religion that you call Christianity there are the words, “In the beginning was the Word.” This is the Word of which we speak. That word that created all was and is and shall be love, yet love as you understand it is most pale and weak compared to that vital love which both creates and destroys.
Within this love are all things visible and invisible. Each consciousness listening to these words is a complex which is love and which manifests in various forms of love. Many are the distortions of that love, yet the energy within them, no matter how great the distortion, is that of love. Often in the attempts to progress either emotionally, mentally, physically or spiritually various things are attempted, tested and tried to see whether they be resources or be found wanting. And so as the seeking soul moves through the moment by moment living out of that love which is all that there is, many structures are tried within which the experience of living makes more sense.
The query this evening concerns one such structure. Within this structure which is not original to us but [is] an amiable portion of the perennial philosophy [that] that which meets the physical senses is to be seen as the reflection of self, your medical doctors consider that various people are seen by the self to be, as the one known as Jim said in his query, projecting onto others that which is actually within. This can be taken too far quite handily, and we would suggest a tempering of the ease with which generalities are made, for indeed all possible actions, motives and ideas whatsoever are a portion of each consciousness which hears these words. All things are one. The self seems to be separate and seems to have a certain personality. This is largely an illusion, the illusion having been created so that the consciousnesses within it could do work and thereby progress spiritually. Within this illusion other entities shall almost always seem to be other, for it is only within the intimacy of intense catalyst, the love-making or the shared creative experience or the laughter that ends in tears, that hearts become so close as to perceive their actual unity, one with the other.
It is not necessary for progressing spiritually that there be the continual focus upon the judgment of how the self is doing, and we find in the attitude of seeing all that comes before one as the mirror that generalization which has moved beyond its heart into that rarefied area which logicians are pleased with but the heart does not find useful.
Let us redirect our thoughts to see where this mirroring effect might be the best tool to use for the aid of the self. In the working of self with self it is frequently useful to take that which sticks within the mind like a burr, that which will not stop bothering the mind, and examine it. Gaze at it as if it were a mineral mined out of your soil to be gazed at and evaluated for its purity, its type of mineral, and so forth. Just this kind of eye may see a fairly accurate version of that mirroring effect if the mirror is not seen to be too large.
In other words, when there is an entity which has, over a period of time, continually created aggravation as catalyst for you then it is well to gaze at that feeling complex regarding that entity with the eye to see where the true source of pain and fear is that is creating the need within to make the separating judgment, for one cannot truly judge another or the self. However, it is a portion of the seeker’s life work to attempt to discriminate for the self, avoiding judgment in the pejorative sense if possible, but focusing carefully to attempt to draw the inner picture which has the least distortion in it. However, when one experiences the reactions within to that which a stranger or a passerby might do one is doing work where there is no work to do. For the truth, whatever that mysterious word is, is not within the chances of desire-driven destiny.
We attempt to give this instrument a concept which it is having difficulty putting into words. If you may allow us a pause. We are those of Q’uo.
[Pause]
We show this instrument a bright and shining hall. The aspect of this hall is grand and mirrors line both sides and both ends. Into this stage in the dress of the costume ball walk ladies and gentlemen in their finery. The conversation is brilliant. The lights glitter, and images repeat themselves endlessly, depending upon this location within this hall of mirrors upon which one stands. Where lies the truth in this gathering? In the flat images within the mirror? In the conversation? In the clothing so grand and lovely? We suggest a turning from all mirrors that seem to reflect and let the discrimination within you choose that time in which you shall invoke the simile or the parable of the mirror.
Choose carefully that time in which you are involved in judgment of others or of self and keep within logical bounds and intuitive baby steps the tendency to destroy that within you which is unfinished by creating harsh or over-generalized judgment. The desire to judge remains compelling throughout the experience of your third density. The ability to judge correctly is not given to any which draws the breath. There is no spiritual use in judgment. When that desire to judge comes upon you, attempt to see it for that which it is, the small self within incarnation attempting to put into order the chaos of perceived stimuli. Release, when possible, that desire to control which has you judging, and turn instead within to that fire which burns at the heart, at the holy of holies, locked within you by silence.
When you can be silent enough to enter that heart, there lies the truth that can only be expressed by the living. Let that journey begin each time the effort is made to look at the self in the mirror of a projected opinion. Yet, always, turn at the end of such logical discourse to that which is underlying and overarching all logical considerations: the infinite love of the one infinite Creator. Intelligent infinity calls each locus of consciousness to live vividly, to open the heart and to choose the manner of living to begin to seek to be of service. We ask each to be gentle with the self while attempting to seek the truth within, to be gentle with others as they mirror to you some portion of the universal self out of which pot all soup is drawn, that is, each variety which comes in the physical can you call the body.
My dear ones, that which is within you is impossible to express yet we feel that each has experienced that essence of self which merges with all and becomes the created and the Creator. Always, at the end of such discourse, turn to the Creator which tabernacles within you and within all. Warm your hands at the flame of this source, for beyond all attempts to grasp the truth there is that consciousness which is the truth, and into its silence you may dip. It is yours to choose when and how, whether it be the contemplation, meditation or prayer. Take the time within each day, if it be only thirty seconds, to turn to the truth which lies within and which all that is without merely suggests, and open the self to the being that is that which you seek, but with no words.
[Tape ends.]