Reflected Consciousness
I was nearly naked, save for my lungota (yoga underwear), as I stood alone in the dark on the edge of black water. The night sky showed a slight lightening in the east where the dawn would soon come. My eyes traveled across the water to the rocky cliffs that soared hundreds of feet into the air, a dark shadow against the starlit night.
The waning crescent moon and brilliant morning star were reflected mirror-like on the calm surface of the water. As I stepped cautiously into the water, unable to see the bottom, ripples moved outward across the surface, distorting the image of the heavens.
Shivering and wet after a short swim, I quickly dressed. Before returning to the meditation retreat for the earliest morning meditation, I paused and looked back. The canopy of the sky was once again reflected in the glasslike surface of the lake.
There is but one moon simultaneously reflected in all bodies of water. The image of the moon in these various bodies of water changes if waves are present in each individual pool. Waves differ in magnitude, frequency, direction, and interference. Therefore, the surfaces of two disturbed pools are never exactly alike, and the reflected lunar images are never quite the same. Only a mirror-like pool free from all disturbance can accurately reproduce the image of the moon.
In a similar way, one infinite consciousness is reflected in the minds of all beings. The human mind differs from that of other created beings in that it fully reflects consciousness. This fully reflected consciousness, however, is distorted by the mental waves of each individual. Just as a mirror, though characteristically unchanged, appears red when reflecting a red object, so also the one infinite consciousness takes on the guise of each individual and can appear angry or happy, educated or ignorant, fearful or confident.
Through meditation, the waves of the mind are calmed until mirror-like it reflects the characteristic self-effulgence of infinite consciousness. In this state, mental forms are left behind and one experiences consciousness itself.