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No analogy is perfect, but the intensity of the obscuring reflections isn't an exaggeration. These reflections contain a confusing mixture of the outer physical world and the inner store house of our being. So its no wonder we mistake this strange mixture for our true inner nature.

We know this mixed reflection isn't really the outside world even though it contains images of the outside world. So we distinguish it from the objective physical world and call it our inner sense of self because we feel we are somehow facing our inner being. We are experiencing our inner being but through a mirror that has the images of the outer world also mixed in.

The difficulty is that this reflection is only a confused image of our inner resources. The things of greatest value however reside in our inner store of being. Without this deeper identity we're floating on the surface of whatever comes our way from without. We're in life but not really living our deepest desires. Instead we're living only the ones superimposed upon us - reflected onto us by the external world. This results in the typical situation where we need the world but frequently find we're not able to be ourselves within it.

Yet the external world is a very important place for each manifested being. It allows us to see objectively the results of our inner desires as they manifest in our daily actions. But the finished objects we create there are not alive. Statues can temporarily express something in us made external, but they can't substitute for our living creativity.