Going Beyond the Metaphor of What We Are

Metaphor is how the mind knows the world. I suggest it is a form of knowing that is better called pattern recognition to distinguish it from the pure knowing of awareness itself. This distinction in what is knowing is a significant step towards liberation from the mind’s power. Metaphors are, by their nature, limited objective forms. They are packets of information labelled and categorised. They form the basis of how the mind interprets what it perceives and, based on the approximations, how we emotionally react to them. Without this capacity, we would not be able to navigate the world, find healthy nourishment, and avoid danger. This mechanism is fundamental to human survival. It is, if you like, a tremendously powerful organising system which is truly miraculous. Beyond just being essential from a survival point of view, it also allows us to enjoy the beauty of the various forms we perceive.

However, the experience of awareness is beyond the mind's version of metaphorical knowing, as here we have an experience that is real yet not knowable metaphorically. As soon as we try to apply a metaphor to it, we discover instantly it does not accurately apply. Therefore, the metaphorical way of knowing cannot know this experience. Insofar as we invest in the metaphors of this experience, we are effectively investing in this metaphorical knowing as if it were the truth. As soon as we do this, we fail to see that we are not investing in the truth but only in the mind’s metaphor of it. We are social animals, and our minds are conditioned by their relationship to society. The metaphor the mind typically applies to awareness is that it is a separate personal awareness. That is, the metaphor is that there is a separate self. This is like looking at space through a special pair of glasses that refracts space into what appear to be separate objects. Although there is no basis for this metaphor in our actual experience, until we see this, we unwittingly buy into the mind’s metaphor of awareness being a separate self. Thus, the pattern is reinforced and becomes a deeply embedded, emotionally laden belief as thoughts and sensations are all inextricably put into the mix. The result is some irrational notion of a separately formed self.

However, as all the various methods and teachings of non-duality tell us, we have an awareness that it is real. As we become aware directly of the reality of it, even if our mind is sufficiently open to admitting there is an experience present which it has to acknowledge but cannot define, we can say that this awareness is beyond mental metaphorical definition. Even then, we may attempt to define it in all sorts of ways and by all kinds of terms. As a concession, the mind may acknowledge there is ‘something not nothing’ – as various spiritual texts describe it – a “no-thing” reality. It is easier for the mind to say what it is not than what exactly it is. What is truly remarkable to understand is that this no-thing reality has been acknowledged by human society for thousands of years. For example, it was very famously summarised poetically by the Buddha in the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings as the 34 negations thus:

“Great! The Great Enlightened, The Great Holy Lord, In Him there is no defilement, no contamination, no attachment. The Trainer of Gods and men, elephants and horses, His moral breeze and virtuous fragrance Deeply permeate all. Serene is his wisdom, calm his emotion, And stable his prudence. His thought is settled, his consciousness extinct, And thus his mind is quiet. Long since, he removed false thoughts And conquered all the laws of existence. His body is neither existing nor non-existing; Without cause or condition, Without self or others; Neither square nor round, Neither long nor short; Without appearance or disappearance, Without birth or death; Neither created nor emanating, Neither made nor produced; Neither sitting nor lying, Neither walking nor stopping; Neither moving nor rolling, Neither calm nor quiet; Without advance or retreat, Without safety or danger; Without right or wrong, Without merit or demerit; Neither that nor this, Neither going nor coming; Neither blue nor yellow, Neither red nor white; Neither crimson nor purple, Without a variety of colour.”

Suppose it becomes clear to us that the mind’s metaphorical way of knowing through limited patterns cannot know this reality, which is, by its nature, beyond all mental pattern recognition. In that case, we have no choice but to accept that the mind cannot know this reality and that any metaphors or stories the mind may be imposing on it cannot be known to be true. We can say some things for certain. It must be what we are in essence because all other experiences come and go, and we must be what knows these experiences, and we cannot deny we are aware of these experiences, such as reading these words right now. It is always present, and it is never affected by other experiences that come and go. Because it is undefinable metaphorically, we cannot find any discernible limitation to awareness. As we honour this awareness we essentially are and rest as the experience of this, it becomes clear that this is the conscious source of all phenomena. Or at least our mind can say we cannot say for certain it is not this, and therefore, we can understand that there is no point in listening to any assertion by the mind that attempts to limit it in any way. As we free ourselves from the metaphors the mind imposes on this aware reality we are, we enter the realm of so-called “not knowing”. A place of complete openness with no need for mental limitation at all. All division between ourselves and the universe dissolves, and there is only a singular flow of this reality. Here, we find absolute security in what is and view everything as an appearance of what is. We see the metaphors for what they are, simply transient forms created by the mind of what is. We do not invest in these metaphors as though they were the reality of what is.

Love,

Freyja