Insight in Sight

or (For)Going the Distance

On today’s TV news, I heard reports that planet K2-18B (not to be confused with Point B!), a mere 125 light-years (or 729 trillion miles, for those of you who like to count your steps), is giving off smells like maybe there’s life there.

Notice how when you hear a distance like that, your mind is likely to think, “I can’t even conceive of something that far.” Ah, but you can conceive of the existence of a distance you can’t conceive of – so, really, what’s the difference?

No matter how you conceive of it, it’s all in your mind. Everything you know about K2-18B, you know in the same place within, the place where you know all your thoughts, all your conceptions.

Furthering the theme, even if you could look out your bedroom window and see the planet in question, you would be seeing the planet, and all the other space junk, and the tops of the trees in your neighborhood, and the frame of the window you’re looking through, and your hands resting on the windowsill – you would be seeing all of it in exactly the same place, the place within where you know the faculty of seeing.

To look at this from another angle – hee hee, aren’t words endlessly ironic? – the absolutely farthest thing you can see, and everything else you can see, all appear within your faculty of seeing.

So, where does your faculty of seeing originate? Does it start at a distance from you? Is there a moat of “not seeing” between you and where your faculty of seeing starts? Or does seeing originate within?

(Hint: say “within,” even if you’re not sure.)

Ah, within, you say? You are correct! Which means that – relative to the function of seeing – you, the faculty of seeing, and everything you see make up a single, undivided whole. There is no actual separation among you, the fact that you see, and all the objects you see!

Now, map this same understanding on all your other senses – hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling – and it should become increasingly clear that you live in a world of sensations and perceptions that you are in no way separate from.

And, although it is worthy of a future post in its own right, a similar understanding applies to you and your thoughts. Everything you think appears within your capacity for thinking, which exists within.

Can you at least start to recognize now that if there is no actual separation between you and a world “out there,” then it couldn’t possibly be true that the peace, happiness, and contentment you’ve forever been seeking can be found anywhere other than already within?

Accessing that peace and happiness may require a little more discussion, but can you at least allow yourself to realize that you’re much clearer on where to look?

If you’re still baffled, feel free to hit me up in the comments.

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The best place you can ever be is HERE and NOW.
The only place you can ever be is HERE and NOW.
There is no Point B!