Normal 0 All of life is experienced. Everything you everlearned throughout your existence has been one big experience, starting whereyour life began.

At some point in time you came into being. Youperceived things around you, but you were not aware of who you were or eventhat you existed. At birth, you entered a world of sights and sounds, and youinteracted with them in the only way you knew how. You made no cognizantchoices; you simply behaved as you would, regardless of how you “ought to.” Youwere simply you.

It’s a wonder that you ever came to know yourself. Youknew about the things around you before you knew of yourself, and even afteryou became self-conscious, you only knew of yourself in relation to thosethings. To this day, you only know yourself in relation to the things andactions and feelings that you experienced around you in your lifetime.

You cannot know yourself apart from your experiences.You need a reality outside of you with which to interact. You need a story inwhich to see yourself.

I heard of a courtyard outside a Buddhist temple inwhich there were 15 large stones. The stones were placed in such a way thatanywhere you might stand inside the courtyard, you can only see 14 of thestones. You cannot see the fifteenth stone. People say that the fifteenth stoneis yourself.

You cannot see yourself without a mirror. The thingsyou experience are mirrors reflecting your image back to you. The way youreacted to things when you were young reflected back to you who you were. Somethings you liked, and some you didn’t. Some made you feel warm and safe, andothers made you afraid. As you became familiar with the way things function inthis world, you learned how to use them, and sometimes they did what youexpected, but other times they surprised you. Sometimes you surprised yourself.

It’s strange being a person. You can distinguishbetween you and reality so that you see a relationship between you and it, butat the same time you are a part of the reality that you perceive. On one handyou are part of it, and at the same time you are distinct from it.

You can also distinguish between imagination andreality, but your imagination depends on your reality. You cannot think ofsomething imaginary apart from the things that are real. Look at the greatestactors. See how they act as if they were really in a particular situation. Itlooks real, because it is real. They act according to a reality that theyreally experienced so that their acting is as real as anything else. They lookback to actual situations they experienced and act accordingly.

Test this with your mind. Imagine something that yourmind is not capable of imagining. That’s right. Think outside of that box. (Thebox in this case is your own mind). Imagine a world that is completelydifferent than the world you live in. No, I mean completely different. Come onnow. Are there people in your imaginary world? Why should there be people? Whydo you want them? Is it because you’ve been designed as a person and a persondesires other persons?