A man sat alone in a dark theater watching a film upon a screen.
The images appeared vivid and real.
Joy.
Fear.
Love.
Loss.
War.
Peace.
He became completely absorbed in the story unfolding before him.
At times he laughed.
At times he wept.
At times he forgot entirely that he was sitting in a theater at all.
So powerful were the moving images that they seemed to possess a reality of their own.
But eventually the man turned around and noticed something he had ignored the entire time.
Behind him, hidden in the darkness, was the projector.
The entire film depended upon its light.
Without the light, no image could appear upon the screen.
Yet no matter what occurred within the film —
fire,
flood,
sorrow,
death —
the light itself remained untouched.
The scenes changed endlessly.
The light did not.
Reflection
The screen is the mind.
The moving images are thoughts,
emotions,
memories,
identities,
and the world as it appears to us.
We become so absorbed in the projections that we forget to notice the light by which they are seen.
That light is awareness itself.
The scenes constantly change.
The light does not.
The ignorant mind becomes lost in the movie and suffers with every scene.
The wise turn toward the source of the projection itself.
When attention returns to the light rather than the images, peace begins to appear naturally.
The light alone makes every appearance possible.