Two Rooms

 Imagine there are two rooms and in each room there is a party going on with music, activity and people. Now imagine the idea of a “me” is in one room and the “I am” is in the other room. What are the experiences like?

Room 1 “Me” - This party is loud. I notice a heavy girl in the corner. Boy am I glad I don’t have that problem I hope she doesn’t want to talk to me. Do I look Ok? I hope this sweater doesn’t make me look fat. I have to work in the morning so I better not stay up to late. Work oh God I just don’t want to go back to that place. Hey, I wonder why the band is playing such crappy music. I wonder if I fit in, I wonder how I can shrink away so no one notices me, I hope I don’t have to talk to anyone. When will this party end so I can go home and sleep so I am refreshed to get up and go to my miserable job where everyone is out to discredit me.…and on and on the chatter goes. The perspective from the “me” is that the experience of the party is happening to me and that I am separate from it therefore I must justify, criticize, judge and manipulate my experience.

Room 2 “I am”- I am viewing this experience from the inside out as opposed to the outside in. This party exists because I am here, for if I were not here it would not exist. I am viewing the others as they are in a room gathered together doing their own thing enjoying the party as I am. I notice the colorful people and the way they express themselves. So different and unique. I understand that I am the experience happening. It can only ever be my interpretation of the experience therefore I am the experience. I realize that my very gaze upon the room and its contents are purely my observation and my interpretation. Each person is an extension of my perspective in this moment and that there is nothing at all wrong in this room unless I say so. I have the power in each moment to perceive the events that arise from the perspective of the I. This same loud music is now seen as the entertainment that so many enjoy. That same heavy girl becomes the object of my affection for I to have experienced that body type. The idea that the sweater could make me look heavy has completely vanished for the sweater reflects my feeling about what I am.  I enjoy the interactions I am having with others for they reflect how I feel about what I am, not what they are. 

Here is a subtle, yet profound understanding about the perspective shift of our self-concepts and how it influences everything in our experience.  It’s not rocket science, it is reality.