PICTURE IS CONFUSION AND SCREEN IS CLARITY

Imagine, for a moment, that you are watching a movie, in a cinema hall and you are so lost in and moved by the pictures, appearing on the screen, that you get up from your seat and run towards the screen, to catch hold of those pictures. Now, do you know, what you will end up catching? You will end up catching the screen and not the pictures? Why? Because, screen is real and pictures are unreal and the real alone IS. The unreal or the pictures, are temporary appearances, which come and go but the screen upon, which these pictures happen, is permanent and is always there. You must have seen that the screen is, always, there - before the show, during the show and even after the show. 

Now, this is what confusion and clarity is. Confusion means, you see only the pictures, you only see, the impermanent but clarity means, you see that which is behind the pictures, that which is the basis of the pictures and that which is permanent. Thus, clarity means, you only see that which is real i.e. the underlying screen because you know that pictures can’t arise and happen without the screen. Clarity means realising that, the screen is all and includes all and knowing that nothing is beyond the screen or the Self. The pictures appear and thrive, temporarily, upon the screen of the consciousness and finally disappear, back into the same screen.   

Now, if you, only, see the pictures, then you exist in confusion, because then everything else exists for you – the individual, the world, the god, your problems, your doubts, your suffering, misery, hell, heaven, moksha, bondage etc. These, all are temporary things, which keep coming n going. In your sleep, all these things, are not there but in your waking, they are there again. Please remember one thing, that only, that which exists in your sleep, is real, is permanent. That which doesn’t exist in your sleep, is not real, not permanent. So, this hide n seek game i.e. appearing and disappearing, can happen only, with that which is impermanent. But that which is real, is there, all the time i.e. in your waking and in your sleep as well. Seeing only pictures and remaining lost, in pictures means, taking pictures as real, as permanent. 

Hence, being with the pictures; seeing only the pictures and remaining lost in the pictures only and at the same time, forgetting the underlying reality, is a state of confusion. Ours is a state of confusion, because we see only, the pictures. Seeing pictures alone, means, existing here as a person, as an individual, as an ego, as a physical. But being with screen and holding on to the screen, all the time, is to exist here as the divine, as the universal existence. Pictures are a duality and hence, a state of confusion but the screen or awareness is non-duality and hence, a state of clarity and oneness. Suffering is because of confusion but clarity is a state of bliss. 

Holding on to the awareness, is holding on to the screen, upon which the whole play of picture happens and yet the screen or consciousness remains untouched and unaffected by that play or by what happens. However, being with the screen, doesn’t mean you ignore your worldly duties or you stop living with your family. Not at all. instead, clarity, means, that you live with your family, you also do, all what you want to do but you are always in touch with the underlying reality. You never forget the screen. Though, you remain with the pictures but you, always, hold on to the reality of the screen. Awareness is clarity and mind is confusion. Meditation is a state of utter clarity.