There is a dog that is afraid to walk by a mirror because there is always an angry dog on the other side. It tries various techniques to handle this situation. This includes focusing on its breath as it passes the mirror. It also tries watching the other dog without any reaction. None of these practices eliminate or expose the source of the dog’s confusion.
One day the dog has a profound realization, it realizes that there is no other dog behind the mirror; it is just its image. After this insight, the dog no longer needs to use any practice while passing the mirror. More importantly, the dog can now use the mirror to learn about itself.
The dog can learn how it moves when walking, the various facial expressions it can make etc. And it can use its image to make adjustments where necessary. As the dog watches itself more in the mirror it makes subtle changes to how it moves its limbs, its tail and other body parts. Now when the dog walks by the mirror it is watchful; the dog is watching, learning and adjusting.
Without the insight the dog can never use the mirror for self-knowledge.
J Krishnamurti: You know, have you ever looked at a drum? A drum is tuned to its highest excellence, the right tone. And when you strike on it, it gives the right note. It is tuned. So the brain, when it is tuned, gives the right note, the right response. I wonder if you capture all this. And it is not tuned, like the drum is not, when it is in conflict, when it is slack. So to have the brain tuned. Not you tune the brain – because you are part of the brain. So is it possible, like the drum which is tuned to its highest excellence, to have the brain so tuned that it gives the right note all the time?
Krishnamurti said relationship is our mirror; that we see ourselves in our relationships with others; that seeing how we relate to others reveals who/what we are.
But if, unlike the dog that realized what a mirror is, my relationships with others reveal only my reactions to others, there is no mirror, no reflection, no relationship.
The observer is not the observed until the observed reflects the observer.
Are you different from your reactions? The reaction is the experience. The illusion of the observer/experiencer prevents the brain from ‘looking’ at what the organism is experiencing. It is akin to the dog that can never ‘look’ at its image because it is convinced that is another dog staring back at it. Once the brain has the insight that there is no experiencer then it can ‘look’ at what it is experiencing; then the brain can begin to put itself in order.
Prevention is an intention and distraction is an effect. Prevention isn’t always effective but distraction is.
If you’re an illusionist, a so-called magician, your magic is your ability to distract your audience from seeing what you’re actually doing by appearing to be doing something else. It’s a trick that has to be mastered.
Prevention is what we do to keep the worst from happening, but to prevent ourselves from being distracted by a master distractor, we have to be unusually alert and attentive.