Most of my awakening has been spent living by a perspective that only exists in my imagination. The most fundamental example of this perspective is the notion and belief that I am a person.
Why? Because I experience myself in one way; as an observer looking out through a body into a wider world full of other beings called people. I do not experience these people the same way as I experience myself. I experience them as separate and detached from me. Despite being separate and objectively different from me, I assume and believe that they exist all the same as me. That those bodies also conceal observers looking outward into the world, and upon me.
Further, I assume that I — who I directly experience — and them — who I do not experience in the same way — are two examples of the same thing. But to whom are we the same? Who would experience us as the same thing? I certainly do not — I experience myself potently and explicitly. And I see them only as moving shapes that speak and appear intelligent. And those other beings I would assume experience me the same way as I experience them: as remote and detached. So to whom are we the same?
This is the imaginary observer. It is a perspective that coincides with my illness, my awakening. When I imagine myself how “other people” would see me, then I am engaging in this self-delusion. There is no other observer besides me. I am the only observer, and the shapes that move about me I call people are not me. I am objectively not like them. I am one type of being, and they are another.
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