In our previous discussion we touched upon what we called The Prime Directive of life. Now this may be well and good, but how does the Prime Directive work? How does Being get to Become, and then know and understand itself?

We all use mirrors, or at least most of us who are considered ‘civilized’ do. How does a mirror help? It reflects back our countenance, and makes us see things about ourselves that we could not see otherwise. A mirror reflection helps us not just to see ourselves, but also to experiment with our appearance, and even figure out what it is that we might need to change with regards to our appearance. Perhaps the hair is unruly, or there is a spot on the cheek. Or may be that dress or suit looks pretty awful.

Having considered the virtues of a mirror, let us now pose a question related to vision itself. Which is, can the eye see itself? This isn’t very different from asking whether a knower can know himself or herself. Now one might think that the eye cannot see itself, but the answer is yes, if only the eye looks into a mirror. For the eye to see itself, there is absolutely no way other than to look at its reflection. Of course, the eye may not recognize itself, but nevertheless its reflection will definitely be caught by the eye.

Let’s take this analogy further. How can Being, the knower, know itself? It needs some kind of ‘mirror’ in which to see itself, recognize itself, understand itself, and try out things. What could possibly constitute such a mirror?

The answer is matter. Or manifestation, if you like. All existence functions as a mirror for Being, so that Being might find itself there, understand itself and explore its full potential. Some of us may have heard this pithy statement: “Your outward reality is a reflection of your inward reality”. Which is another way of saying that Being observes and discovers itself in the pool or mirror of matter.

We will call this concept the Principle of Reflection, that Being reflects itself in the mirror of matter. But is it true?

In the book “The God Principle”, we looked at how various natural and spiritual phenomena are revealed to be reflections of each other. That book essentially made the argument that the Principle of Reflection is literally true. By following its descriptions any reader with a scientific bend can come to his or her conclusions on the matter. Of course the book is not an easy read, any more than a book on physics or any other scientific or technical subject is.

Even otherwise spiritual literature abounds with descriptions of the power of imagination and of intent, and how inner reality affects one’s outer realities. Rather than discuss them further here we are simply pointing out why they exist.

Matter thus serves a dual purpose. One, it enables Being to become, to explore itself. Secondly, material reality that surrounds a Being functions as a true reflection of that Being’s inner reality, so that the information is always available to the inner eye - even if Being is caught up in its becoming. The inner eye or inner observer of an individual is known in certain terminology as the higher self. We will elaborate further on this later.

So what we have essentially stumbled into is that there needs to be duality. There is Being, and there is an arena where Being can become, and where Reflection enables the inner observer to see itself. The duality of matter and spirit is thus a requirement for what we call Life. The principle of reflection plays out in this duality, and even requires this duality. Duality exists so that Being may discover itself.

So then, what does this reflection really do? How does it work? This principle is fundamental to our understanding of life and of ourselves. Therefore we will devote some more pages to its discussion.