Reality is Like an Elephant

The world we perceive is an extension of our minds.
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Have you ever noticed how impossible it can seem to talk about the world with someone who doesn’t share our viewpoint?

It is as if we live in completely different worlds – and we do.
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Note: the mind and the ego are essentially the same thing, and the terms “ego,” “ego/mind” and “mind,” in this context, are interchangeable. 

Making the World

Reality is never what we think it is.

​In just the way a house takes on the shape of its inner framework, what we see that we call “others” and “the world” is actually the framework of our minds projected onto life.

Instead of 2x4s, our inner framework is made up of our perceptions, beliefs, memories and emotions. Naturally, we gravitate to others who share a similar framework, in great fields of collective consciousness like identical houses clustered together in giant suburban neighborhoods.
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No Way (says the mind)

To the mind, it is inconceivable that things can be different than it perceives.

The mind always thinks it is right, and according to the parameters it calls “reality” it is always right! Even if things are horrible, the mind at least has the satisfaction of being right. We can spend a whole lifetime in this version of hell, always feeling there must be something more, something true, something we are longing for without even knowing what it is.
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India Has a Fable About Just This

Six blind men encounter an elephant (having never done so before). Each one reaches out and grasps the nearest part: the tail, the tusk, the ear, and so on. Each man insists he knows the nature of the beast: it is a rope, a spear, a fan – and each man knows he is right.

Yet none are right: it is not a rope, a spear or a fan. It is an elephant.
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Reality is Like an Elephant

Every time we are willing to venture beyond our own perceptions, we awaken into a greater truth that is very much like encountering an elephant for the first time: stunningly obvious, yet until now, completely unimaginable.

The pieces we had before: the tail, the tusk, the ear, take their places within a greater context that completely changes our earlier perception of them. In this wider view we grasp something about life and our place in it that we had no way of comprehending before.
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​No matter what the mind believes, there is always a higher truth.
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Since the mind is not willing or even capable of finding the elephant, it is up to us. The mind pretends it wants to find the elephant but it really doesn’t. In fact, elephants are very dangerous to the mind and the ego/mind will do everything in its power to divert us from encountering one.
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One Way to Find an Elephant

If you want to take on an enlightening project, instead of looking out to the world for ‟reality,” look within and discover what is creating the shape of the reality you see.

Pick any single element of the mind – any worldly thing you think is true, any belief, experience or emotion – especially about something difficult or in which you have taken a position. Follow that belief or perception (and the feelings surrounding it) to its source and find out where it goes. 

How do you “follow” a thought? It is easy if you don’t think of the mind as yourself – which it is not. Then, you just keep looking to see what the mind does next. For example, let’s say you have a problem with someone at work – a coworker who is sarcastic, belittling, patronizing. We will choose that thought. The thought says, This guy is a jerk – he’s mean, arrogant and he doesn’t like people like me. That thought is like having the tail of the elephant: it is the starting place. 

If you are a blind man and all you have got is the tail, it is obviously a rope. But if you are seeking a greater truth you will start to explore the rope and see where it goes.
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As your hands move higher and higher up the rope you will reach something that is no longer a rope. What is this? It is massive, smelly, complicated – what the heck is this? Whatever it is, you don’t want to go any further. It is scary. It is unknown and bigger than you. You don’t know what will happen.

But if you keep going even though you feel scared and out of control and don’t have a handle on the world anymore, your exploration will lead you to realizing a higher level of the organization and design that is life – a greater paradigm – in which an elephant becomes obvious. 

Following the thought of the difficult coworker is exactly the same process. We will start with what seems obvious: he is sarcastic, patronizing and doesn’t like us. That is the rope. If we stick with that thought, notice the next thing the mind does with it – this is like moving our hands up the rope. Let’s say the next thing is anger. Anger at his presumption, his ability to make us feel small. 

Moving our hands further up the rope, we ask, What does feeling small feel like? It becomes apparent the mind doesn’t like feeling small one bit. It feels groundless, lost and afraid. Still, we keep going and let’s say the fear leads next into a feeling we have felt before. We can remember having this feeling in grade school, feeling invisible and inadequate, not fitting into anything. This is the kind of thing you find when you follow a thought.
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The Inner Doorway

At this point you might think you found the elephant. But this is not the elephant – it is the end of the rope. This is where you reach the unknown, where you don’t have the world figured out anymore. Whatever this is, you don’t want any more of it. It is scary. It is bigger than you. You don’t know what will happen.

Keep going anyway. This is an inner doorway to higher truth. Keep going and you will find the elephant. Then you will laugh in joy because you have a bigger picture and in this bigger picture everything falls into place, including you. 

In this greater view, you can look back on how the world used to be, and it is obvious you were holding the tail of an elephant and thinking it was a rope. You will realize you formed a view of the world around an idea of smallness and inadequacy that could never exist except in the mind. Now you know that your coworker could no more belittle you than he could belittle an elephant. 

In fact, now you even like him and you like his weird sense of humor – you get along fine. There isn’t a problem anymore.
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Happiness is Finding an Elephant

Every time we have the courage to step into the unknown we come back to ourselves. We remember who we are. We return to life and realize we are part of everything, intrinsic to life, safe and loved. 

Any content of the mind will lead us to this truth. Isn’t that amazing? Any content – you can take anything the mind thinks, follow it, and it will lead you back to yourself.
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Every Step We Take Changes the World

Every time we take a step – even a tiny step – beyond our own inner paradigm we call "the world," the world becomes a better place: we see beauty everywhere, people around us become more loving and friendly, we feel happier and more at ease, more powerful and creative, we encounter less strife and hardship. 

As hard as it can be to give up our cherished ideas of how things are, when we do, we encounter stunning new truth and wake up to life a little more. Every step beyond the parameters of the ego/mind, no matter how seemingly small, lets in more light and more truth. Every step reveals a little more of life as it is, rather than how we think it is.

And the path is infinite.
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Paradigm Practice will show you how to do what I just described in a very healing and transformative process.

Read about Paradigm Practice.   Download the Handbook and Audio Guide. ​