Seeing Through the Projections

Have you ever stopped to notice how many times you are bombarded, in a single day, with other peoples images of what they think you are, or should be? Our own projections on the world around us and the people in it are often equally off the mark.  It can be very revealing if one really takes the time to notice. 

Most of what goes on in our world, is geared to promote some kind of fantasy, some kind of unrealistic image of who and what we think we should/could be. We desperately need to take a look at all of this, to ask ourselves, is this true?

We need to step back, so that we can get a perspective, so that we can see through the 'projections'. Because, basically most of it is precisely that, projection! 
These projections are like reflections in a mirror, they are not the real me, nor are they the real you.

Take for example, some of the most 'powerful people' in the world today; the politicians, movie stars, artists, sports people, all those 'famous figures' who seem to have everything. Do any of them know who they really are?

Read more in Never Not Ever Here Now
Books by the Writer

Just As You Are

Recognizing one's inner peace and happiness
 need not involve any discomfort or effort at all.

Adi Annamalai

Does a fish know that the water in which it is swimming is the reason it can exist?  It lives out the entire little drama of it's life quite unaware of this fact.  In the same way, we live, move and have our being within 'awareness' and yet never acknowledge it or are even aware of our dependence upon it for our very existence.  

If there is a purpose in life, it must surely be to find out who and what we really are.


The mind is supreme in complicating what is most simple and in this way deflects attention away from it's source.  If we carefully and methodically investigate the nature of our thoughts; the nature of our minds, we can very soon understand that these thoughts have no basis; that there is no mind.

It is not enough to merely to hear this, one has to make an investigation with intention and focus. 

For aeons we have let mind rule our existence and it has run us a riot! The ocean of samsara is vast and it can enslave us within its fascination for countless aeons. Anything that the mind is capable of imagining is possible, because in samsara the mind is king and creates its own 'reality.'

Read more in Never Not Ever Here Now
Books by the Writer

The White Sail

While briefly lent this precious human body's white sail

pushed by pure intentions gentle wind,

without turning back towards miserable samsaric deserts

and making the error of missing this chance,

try to receive virtue's jewels by crossing the waves of ocean mind

to the supreme continent of the Triple Gems,

since doing this is more meaningful than anything else!

Thinley Norbu

The chapter on the life of another great Tibetan Master has closed and yet Dungsey Thinley Norbu's writings will continue to inspire and motivate those in search of truth for many generations to come.

I met him for the first time in the early 1990,s at Asura Cave above the small township of Parping, in the southern corner of the Kathmandu Valley. He appeared there one afternoon with a small group of Western Students. At the time I was occupying a room in the retreat center of Tulku Orgyen which is next to the famous cave.

When I heard a Tibetan voice carefully enunciating sentences in English, I curiously leaned out of my window to see who it was and was pleasantly surprised to see Thinley Norbu talking to one of his students while at the same time, trying to catch his breath after the lengthy climb. Asura is a good hundred steep, steps up the side of a hill from the village below. As soon as I realized who it was, I shot down the stairs, taking a long white greeting scarf with me.

I had been extremely fortunate to be present at a number of teachings that he gave over the years in Boudhanath, but I had never met him personally, so this was a truly golden opportunity.

After I had gone forward and offered the Kadak, he immediately asked who my teacher was and when I told him that it was Chadral Rinpoche he seemed very pleased indeed.

Chadral Rinpoche and Thinley Norbu were very close, in fact he had come to Parping to visit Chadral Rinpoche at his Monastery which was situated lower down the hill at the base of a mighty cliff.

Read more in Masters, Mice and Men

Volume 3 of Shades of Awareness

Dunsey Thinley Norbu Rinpoche.