A Metaphor Pointing Towards Buddha Nature

In Plato’s Metaphor of The Cave, sentient beings are likened to those who dwell in a cave and only really ‘know’ about reality through an interpretation of the shadows cast on the walls. If you have been following my posts, you will already be familiar with the shadows and reflections of perception which are a metaphysical explanation of this phenomenon.

Another way to understand this is to consider a cinema in which we are seated, watching a film. In a nod towards The Matrix, imagine you could settle down in super comfy chairs and become totally absorbed in the movie. The movie is tailored exactly to your viewpoint, and one might get so immersed that one forgets that, in truth, one is sitting in a cinema.

Imagine several years have passed. The cinema chairs now support your body’s needs and you have, for some time, totally forgotten about the cinema. You are completely enchanted by the movie.

Now imagine you are astute enough to recognise that, while still totally enraptured, there is something ‘off’ with the movie. The fact that it is centred on you seems odd. In fact, you are starting to suspect things are somehow scripted, like in the film The Truman Show, where the main character is in a reality show of which he is unaware.

You have become so enchanted by the movie for so long that, despite growing suspicions, you simply don’t know where to look for answers. There is, of course, an edge to the screen, but it is relatively dark and hard to see as the bright and distracting images keep drawing your attention back to the movie.

It takes a huge leap of faith to drag your eyes away from the movie, for one feels anxiety at pulling one’s attention away from it, even for a few moments. But, with increasing suspicion and faith, one finally manages to pull away, turn one’s head, and briefly—because it is utterly dazzling—catch a glimpse of the projector.

Even though we only manage to get a single glimpse of the projector, it is beautiful and radiates all the colours of the movie, but brighter and seemingly more real.

However, it took all our faith and effort, and now we are utterly confused. We settle back into our deluded experience, yet deep down we know there is something else—brighter, more real than ‘reality’.

We might be quite confused for some time and run amok in our deluded movie. But we cannot let the experience of ‘something out there’ go, and eventually we settle and resolve to attempt another glimpse. We commit to learning techniques that increase our ability to pull away from the screen and work toward learning about this new and more real version of reality.

“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”
— Matthew 6:22, The New Testament (KJV)