imagine you are floating freely in space,
bodiless.
now imagine a sphere around you, a large opaque bubble.
this is your mind and body.
it's a metaphor.
the upper part of the inside surface
is covered with sense impressions of your human body and the world:
what you can hear and see and feel.
the lower part is covered with your internal senses:
imagination, memories, preferences, skills, etc.
everything that makes you who you are.
emotions are a colored band along the edge between,
separating the top and bottom fields.
emotions are both physical and mental.
when your internal mind is active, the edge pushes up
and the internal senses cover more of the sphere.
when you focus on your environment,
the edge pushes down, as you quiet your mind
and the external senses dominate.
in the center of the sphere is floating a clear glass marble.
this is your awareness.
it is the lens through which thought occurs.
the mind works through it, like arcs of energy,
connecting ideas and sense impressions.
it can be very busy, or it can be very peaceful.
in your mind right now,
the beam from the marble is touching these words you read,
touching your knowledge of the meanings of these words,
your image of the sphere and the marble and the beams,
the sounds happening around you,
the feelings in your limbs.
now imagine moving outside the sphere,
leaving the glass marble inside,
and see the sphere sitting in the world.
the outside of the sphere is covered with your actions.
the marble inside can only see the inside of the sphere;
it can't see the world directly.
there are other spheres in the world, other people,
with their own clear marble inside
and their own sense impressions of the world, imaginations, etc.
you cannot see inside their bubbles to what they see:
the band of emotion, the inner and outer fields, the marble and the beam.
you can only see what is on the outside, their actions.
you can only imagine.
imagine all of those bubbles
and what a dance of information it is.
there is so much to be found in this world.
i carry a glass marble in my pocket
to remind me of this structure
and where peace is.