Consciousness is also a Mirror

An essential step in becoming a good reflector is, in Zen, what they call polishing the mirror. In order to reflect well, the mirror has to be clearly polished—there can’t be any dust on the mirror. Transcendentalism has a lot to do with clearing the mirror of the self. And if the mirror is spotless, we will reflect diverse forms of eternity, which is what we call enlightenment.

Enlightenment is the absence of self in individualized form. There’s no more dust on the mirror. The mirror has broken, as a matter of fact, and it’s thousands of tiny little pieces, each one that reflects a different part of the universe. We can stand back and say that they are all part of the whole. We can look at each one and see that each one reflects something a little bit different, and we could say that they’re all individual—both would be correct.

All our Concord waters have two colors at least; one when viewed at a distance, and another, more proper, close at hand. The first depends more on the light, and follows the sky. In clear weather, in summer, they appear blue at a little distance, especially if agitated, and at a great distance all appear alike. In stormy weather they are sometimes of a dark slate color. The sea, however, is said to be blue one day and green another without any perceptible change in the atmosphere.

Some consider blue “to be the color of pure water, whether liquid or solid.” But, looking directly down into our waters from a boat, they are seen to be of very different colors. Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same point of view. Lying between the earth and the heavens, it partakes of the color of both.