Mirrors lie.
Or, more accurately our brains do. More specifically, our brains lie when observing our reflection. It’s pretty much impossible for us to see ourselves as we really are.
At the most basic level, our mind plays tricks on us when viewing our reflection. Our brains are literally trained to focus on the things we don’t like. Moreover, our minds exaggerate the things we don’t like so that they appear larger. Anyone who has ever had a pimple knows this to be true.
But let’s take a step back.
Even beyond our tricky brains, everything we see is an illusion. Look at your arm. It looks like a solid mass of flesh and bones. But it’s not; it’s trillions of atoms whirling around in giant clouds of information and energy. When you look in the mirror, that’s not something you’ll see
But let’s take yet another step back.
There’s a great and fitting quote by Thich Nhat Hanh about seeing clouds in a piece of paper:
If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow: and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are.
Though it sounds like a line in some cheesy song, almost every element on earth was made in the heart of stars. The nuclear fusion that causes our sun to glow and the stars to shine also creates the elements from which the world around us - and even our own bodies - are built.
When you look at yourself in the mirror, you might see wrinkles or fat or things that you don’t like. But if you could really see yourself at a deeper level, you wouldn’t just see the clouds or the stars. You’d see the entire universe reflecting back at you in all its grandeur.
The mirror lies.
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