The Painting That Is Your Life

Imagine that the whole universe consists of a single painting and that this painting is exactly whatever you are presently viewing. That’s it; the entirety of reality right there, present as whatever is being seen, whatever is being heard, whatever is being experienced. That’s it. There is nothing else to see, no other painting to experience, no other painting that could ever be experienced. Nope. There is just this, this single, solitary painting, the painting that is your life…

But this painting of reality is unlike any you've ever encountered for it’s not just sitting there, static and unmoving. No, this painting is alive. It is in a state of constant flux; the images moving and dancing, transforming themselves moment-by-moment into something else. Take a look… how is the painting of your life appearing right now? And what about now? It's different, isn’t it? Every instant the painting shifts, even if in the subtlest of ways... 

And what about us, the supposed viewer of the painting? It turns out that we're not actually outside of it, viewing the painting as if it were some object apart from us. No we, the apparent viewers, are actually an intrinsic, inseparable part of the painting itself. The seer of the painting is also in the painting. Remember, there is nothing but the painting, the viewer, the viewing and the viewed, a single apparition. 

As we move from moment-to-moment, experience to experience, circumstance to circumstance, we are simply traveling to different portions of the painting. You can never enter or exit the painting for there is only the painting. 

Remember… you can never be cast out of the only thing that exists.