Page 133 - Extinguishment of self, in search of dhamma

then know. Ah, what the good point here is. Sometimes the mirror fools us. We look in it and our face looks beautiful. But, we look in another mirror, how come our face is so round? When we look in this mirror, our face is elongated. Have you ever seen them—mirrors that fool us? Some mirrors do not re ect reality. I also notice these mirrors. When we go to certain places, we walk past this mirror and we look really tall; with this mirror, how come we stretch out sideways? Ah, sometimes mirrors are not accurate; they do not re ect reality. In reality, if there are many, many mirrors, go and look in the ones that are close to reality. Ah, in reality, our face looks like this—this is the result.
But whatever is the re ection, if we have good eyesight; if we carefully contemplate; if we know ourselves—no matter how the mirror elongates, compresses, stretches (our re ections), we are okay. We consider (the mirrors) re ecting for us to know, for us to see. People are the same. Observe that in the society, we live together. Feedback (Translator’s note: From other people) are like mirrors re ecting images of ourselves. So, we observe, we listen (to other people). That provides good re ections. The mirror in the corner, we need to observe carefully. The mirror in the corner tends to be curved. But, the mirror that is upright tends to be straight. Therefore—observe carefully. Consider (other people) as the mirror re ecting us—enabling us to know, to see ourselves. This will help us develop ourselves—especially as we us dhamma as our foundation.
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