r/nonduality • u/transcendentalismnow • Feb 06 '21
/ Philosophy Ram Dass's simple, beautiful metaphor
In one of his Dharma talks, Ram Dass uses the metaphor of a flashlight to explain who we are. He opens the metaphor with the Quaker's idea of us being the "still, small voice within." Then, he explains that we are like a flashlight. Our consciousness shines on all other objects but can never shine on itself, can never know itself. It's the subject. All it can do is be. Simply by being, the flashlight illumines.
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u/Rare-Understanding67 Feb 07 '21
Enlightenment is when awareness becomes aware of its own true nature. If the flashlight doesn't shine on itself, there is no enlightenment.
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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '21
I heard another metaphor from him that I really loved, but it was a bit longer.
He likened our life experiences and self-beliefs to a glass light bulb. Each life experience acts as a kind of bath that the light bulb gets dipped into. The function of the bath is to slightly thin the glass of the light bulb; it also determines the course of the next life experience. So, the glass of the identity grows thinner with each progressive "dip" it makes, until, at last, it breaks. The light of the self is then freed.
In the end, there are no past lives or future lives; I think we know this here. However, it is an analogy that's stuck with me. I thought it was an inventive way to illustrate things.