World Projection 

The world is our own projection. We see what we are conditioned to see, what we are trained to see. 

When you are hungry, you walk by and notice every restaurant on the block, even those you didn't know existed.

You may own a certain car - a Pruis perhaps. Before you bought that Prius, you scarcely noticed Priuses. Now you spot every single one of them. Your eye has been trained to pick them out. 

There are many stories and parables in spiritual traditions that illustrate this selective conditioning and prove that "nothing is bad outside." It is only that our own projection of the world that is skewed, or distorted, by our own mental conditioning.

Here is a little parable from Sri Ramakrishna, a spiritual teacher from India:

"A few people were walking along the road early in the morning, and they saw a man lying on the side of the road.

The first one said, “He must have spent the whole night gambling and couldn’t reach home, so he fell asleep here. Gamblers are like that. They don’t reach home safely.”  Then he walked away.

The second man spoke, “Poor man, he must be very ill. We shouldn’t disturb a sick man. Let him rest here.”  Then he continued on his way.

A third man came and said to the man on the side of the road, “You’re a bum; you don’t know how to drink. Don’t you know one or two is enough? Probably they gave you free drinks, and now you are down.” He treated him as a drunkard.

The first fellow thought the man had been gambling and was sleeping. The second thought he was sick and the third thought he was drunk.

Then, a fourth man spoke. “A saint doesn’t care where he is. Probably he’s in higher consciousness, samadhi. A saint can be anywhere. He may be near a ditch, near a river, in a temple, sitting and meditating or even lying down meditating. This man is probably above physical consciousness. Let’s not disturb him.”  He then bowed and walked away.

We don’t know who was right. All four may have been wrong. They all saw the same person differently because they projected themselves. A drinker thinks the other is drunk. A saint sees a saint.

The world as you perceive it is nothing but your projection. Whatever is in your mind, is what you can see. Correct your vision and then you will see the Truth.