The Image in the Mirror

By Linda Sechrist

Have you ever had a moment when you looked in the mirror and wondered, “How can the image staring back be me?” I have. I thought about that one moment for days, even months, and I still return to it. I believe it stayed with me because it caused my mind to stop thinking, creating a gap that allowed me to pause and feel it so deeply. It resonated, striking a chord with my feelings in that instant. Nothing like it had ever occurred to me before. I’d never had such a moment when I was young. It felt as though the presence of something, other than me and my eyes, was peering into the glass without having a particular perception.

Though fleeting, I use that experience to describe a moment when I dipped my foot into the waters in the sea of enlightenment. My foot got wet, but I never fully immersed myself in the ocean. I wonder whether others have felt this experience as they see their bodies and faces aging. It occurred to me, in moments that followed, that the aging process happens to help me turn more of my attention and intention on nurturing and strengthening my inner life, focusing less on any illusions of the world that I’ve been chasing.

I reach back for such moments, that are like rays of the sun breaking through the clouds, whenever I feel the need to return to an ordinary moment in which I’ve encountered the extraordinary. Such moments become my small touchstones, like tiny pearls strung on the strand of a necklace.

I spend the early mornings of my days listening to Rumi’s poetry set to music, reading books such as I AM THAT: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, or contemplating the words and concepts presented in the podcasts of Father Richard Rohr, a Christian Mystic, who founded the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque; Bernardo Kastrup, PhD, PhD, whose work has set off the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism; Rupert Spira, an English philosopher, author of You Are the Happiness that You Seek: Uncovering the Awareness of Being, and proponent of nonduality as well as many others in these mentioned categories. Recently a recorded interview with Richard Rohr and Ken Wilber, an American writer on transpersonal psychology, most recognized for his book on Integral Theory, caught my attention.

I’ve never read any of Wilber’s books or listened to his podcasts because I felt he was too heady and intellectual for me. However, the dialogue between the two of them, caused me look into Wilber’s work, particularly about growing up and waking up; doing our shadow work, without which the process of growing up, waking up, and clearing up, can be subverted; and the stages of growth and faith, as well as moving through stages to higher states of consciousness and awareness. Wilber’s work as well as Rohr’s on the nondual state, gives me more to ponder in my morning ritual, which I consider very important for my spiritual growth and for waking up in more moments of dipping my foot in the waters of enlightenment.