Thanks for sharing the story, Sleipnir. I didn’t find it silly at all. I feel it points toward a truth many traditions have noticed: we tend to see the world not as it is, but as we are.

Anita reminds us that life doesn’t always mirror us back in a neat or predictable way. Kind people are sometimes met with cruelty, and open hearts are sometimes met with closed doors. Still, our assumptions, fears, and expectations undeniably shape what we notice and how we respond.

What caught my attention, though, was the monk’s final line about reflecting what we want. I found myself questioning whether “want” is quite the right word.

If the storyteller had been a Zen teacher, I almost imagine a third dog approaching the House of a Thousand Mirrors. Not angry. Not happy. Only curious. Looking inside, it would see whatever was there to be seen, or perhaps no reflections at all.

It leaves me wondering whether wisdom lies in trying to get more pleasant reflections, or in simply becoming aware of the one doing the looking.

In that sense, the House of a Thousand Mirrors may not be showing us the world at all. It may just be showing us ourselves.

Good Saturday morning (it is here), Sleipnir 🙂

Sometimes a feeling motivates us to say or do something. For example (taking it from your new thread), you feel anxious about your health (a feeling), so you started a new thread about your health concerns, asking for advice (a doing).

Sometimes we feel something, and next, we believe something that is not true, or we catastrophize (believe something is way worse than it is). For example, “my legs are going bye bye?” (from the same new thread).

Did I answer your question, Sleipnir?

🤔 Anita