Look, there is a man. He is in his early 30’s, and he is wearing a nice open necked shirt. Behind him there appears to be a desert scene. The sun is shining on his face, and it looks like there is a light breeze blowing his hair. He looks really happy…at peace. Maybe he is on vacation. There are mesas back behind his shoulders. Your perceptions expand…

Look, that man is leaning against an auto. His arms are on his hips, and he is on the side of a highway somewhere in the southwestern US. The vehicle is a convertible, which explains why his hair looks like it is being brushed by wind. If he is on vacation I do not see any luggage in the car. It is a sub compact like a Mazda Miata, or something similar. But by the look on his face he is really enjoying his drive through the desert. There are a variety of cactus behind him in the expanse of brown desert. You can almost smell the sagebrush too, but the wind maybe is not blowing in this direction. Your perceptions change…

Whoa…it was a photograph of a man leaning against his vehicle in the southwestern desert. It must be a digital photograph, because it looked so real to me that I swear I could feel the heat of the desert on my skin, too. Now I have to wonder if he was really on vacation, or was this photographed pose on purpose to look like a man on vacation? Maybe it was an advertisement for the car?. Who would have a photo of this man? Is it a relative, or a friend…perhaps the man himself? I can’t believe I believed a photo was an actual physical man. Your perceptions change…

No wait…it is not just a photograph. It is a woman holding a photograph of a man leaning on a car in the southwestern desert. The look on her face tells me this is someone that she loves. Or maybe loved. Is it her husband…boyfriend…best friend…brother? I think she is smiling, but her head is slightly turned down and her hair is in her profile, but she appears to be happy…or maybe she is sad. I can’t really tell, but she seems like she knows the man in the photograph. She is wearing a really nice white summer gown with small flowers in the print. The room she is in is designed in mostly whites and minimal colors. She seems to be wealthy by the quality of the furniture and articles that are in view. Your perceptions change…

Ah she is a model being photographed. There is a photographer behind a tripod giving her slight orders on how she needs to pose. He is very professional. You can tell by the assistants he has with him, and the way he carries himself. He seems to be dissatisfied with the pose, and walks away from the camera…perhaps to get a mental and creative break from the photo shoot. He has a look of exhaustion on his face as he looks out of a nearby window. Perhaps he is having second thoughts about career choice. Perhaps he is doing someone a favor by using this particular woman, and she simply is not working out for him. Your perceptions change…

No way! Even the photo shoot is fake…it is on a movie set and by the sounds of it a foreign film is being made about this photographer’s life. Or is it perhaps about the woman’s life? It sounds like the director is speaking french…must be one of those art house films. There are all sorts of people coming and going across your field of vision who are working behind the scenes of this production. The catering table looks very welcoming right now. Your perceptions change…

This is your life. This is the spiritual path you have been on. This is you stepping back just enough to see the truth about perceptions, and being right…speaking truth. At each level of perception I described the scene as I was capable of experiencing it. What began as a story about a man in the desert kept changing, and as it changed the main character of the perception before was let go of for the main character that evolved from it. The man was forgotten when we felt it was the woman who was the central figure. The woman was not focused on once we realised the photographer was the central figure. And like all good spiritual paths, all the lesser players were detached from once we experienced the production that goes on behind the scenes.

Look back over your evolution of awareness and see if there were a lot of truths that you outgrew along the way – some that might even be painful to admit to. The truth is, that truth is as good as the level of awareness perceiving it. Unless you are wide awake, and at the end of the evolutionary journey, then you have to assume that the truths you hold now will also be truths that will eventually be let go of. Everyone is right. Everyone’s truth is appropriate for their level of awareness, experiences, and inheritance of beliefs. The brain loves a good story, and will attach itself to every new truth it perceives. The Self knows that truth is mutable and fallible.