I am a liar ~ Amardeep Photography

During a photo shoot, where my focus was to bring out the intensity of watchful eyes, I also had an opportunity to delve deeper into philosophy of Creation and Creators act of observing Himself through our eyes. Click first photo at bottom and scroll to view the series but do also read the philosophy.

I am a liar - If I am a liar, then I am telling the truth, and if I am telling the truth, then I am lying. Staying within the rules of grammar, it is impossible to get out of the circular tangle because this sentence speaks to itself. For a person having an outside view, not stuck in the tangle of grammar, the simple response to speaker would be, “Why are you a liar?”.

M.C. Escher (1892-1972) is a famous artist, known for his impossible constructions. “Drawing Hands” is a lithograph he printed in 1948. It depicts a sheet of paper out of which two hands arise on the flat surface, facing each other in the paradoxical act of drawing one another into existence. See in his drawing below and you will be tangled in trying to decipher, who is drawing whom! This tangle can only be resolved by jumping out of the loop. Only with an outsider view, we realize it is Escher drawing the two hands.

So you meet a friend over coffee. The friend starts talking and after an hour becomes aware, saying “Sorry, I have been talking about myself for the last hour. We should talk about you. So tell me what do you think about me?”. Here it is an ego tangle. Only you as another person can break away from the conversation by choosing not to talk about the friend.

Tangles giving self reference are common in everyday life. We cannot solve our problems from the state of understanding from which they were created. Solutions require a change of view.

The spiritual philosophy of Sikhs, Sufis and Advait Hinduism have a common thread that Consciousness is the only pervading reality of creation. The world existence is false, being like a wave on the surface of ocean, existing only for a moment and then subsiding into the stillness of water. The sub-stratum of creation is Consciousness, the only reality, with creative appearance being totally false. Most of us encounter a big challenge in comprehending this simple philosophy because it means our existence, which appears to be real, is to be understood as unreal! Here again appears the tangle. To break away it requires to view yourself as being different from your body existence. It is through this changed view that one realizes the existence to be a mere disturbance in sub-stratum, which is simply the Consciousness.

These spiritual traditions proclaim Consciousness created us as beings, in order to experience Himself through His own momentary creation. Through our eyes, He desires to watch Himself. On page 294 of Adi Granth, Guru Arjan Dev summarizes this entire philosophy in a few lines.