"Mirrors, at first glance, are absurd. Like a village idiot, they are good at mimicking but not at understanding what they imitate. Whatever I do the image in the mirror does back, a comical, superficial mime. No wonder children like to clown before a mirror — the mirror is itself a clown.

"But look again. Look deeper, behind the surface play of images, to find a deeper meaning to the mirror. A mirror enables me to climb outside of myself, to view myself as others do. I witness my face staring back at me as if it were that of another person. We are twinned, and I'm not even sure who I am — looker or looked at — we are so intertwined.

"Look even deeper, and the mirror has a further message: All people are mirrors reflecting one another. Who am I? I look into your eyes to find there my image. Do you think me attractive, courageous, and smart, or somehow deficient? I am reflected back to myself through your gaze, as well as that of countless others I meet. And I do the same for you. I act as your mirror to show you who you are. Six billion people are six billion mirrors, reflecting one another in the funhouse of the world.

"This suggests an even deeper truth: that you and I are one. Somehow we are intimately connected, as I am to my own face in the mirror. To this end tend most mystical and moral teachings such as: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Instead of the 'golden rule' we might call this the 'mirror rule.' It says treat the other person as if it were you, mirrored back in the eyes of another.

"We misuse a mirror when we search in it mainly for signs of our uniqueness. 'Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?' This is to ask the mirror a surface question, and identify self with its most surface attribute. No wonder this question is attributed in Snow White to the wicked queen. It is a divisive question that leads to violence towards self and others. Instead, let us ask a deeper question, and hear a deep reply: 'Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who am I?' 'You are one with All.'

"Today look into the face of another and, looking beyond the surface differences, see a reflection of yourself."