The Gaze of Others
The shock of steady regard on display here is from Flickr user
Katie Cook. It is
used here under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
I saw that the gaze of others made me tense and full of fear. I felt I had to prove myself, and this led me into loops of nervous activity. Each action trivial, but (over) valued for the imagined effect on the being who I felt "less-than."
Finally, all of this tension dissolved when I saw there is nothing real to fear.
If a being looks at me, the real part of their gaze is one already known to me: it is the gaze of the eternal listening attention. It is the gaze of God.
There is nothing to fear from this gaze. It is already always with you. You are always looked upon in the deepest parts of your being.
When you fear the gaze of another, you are valuing the unreal part of them. It is the unreal part of you that values this component of their gaze. Why? Because it values itself, and like knows like.
You have already learned better. You actually have some idea of where real value lies.
So accept and be honored by the gaze of others. Do not see the unreal aspect. Only the pure attention beholding itself.
Freedom must be the freedom to choose. You can choose to see and value the higher frequencies of the gaze. You can choose not to grant the lower frequencies any importance.
Your accuser, then, is your brother. The greater his wrath, the greater your gain, for intensity of feeling is itself an accelerant and focusing of Awareness in the midst of storm and chaos.
I am here. I am glad that you are here.