What do we really experience?  The objects in front of us, or the
image in our minds?

Most people understand this logically.  What you may find harder is to
meditate on the idea, and really take in that everything that you see,
right now, all that surrounds you, is your own concious mind.

The sensation of your physical self and the sensation of your physical
environment are just equal parts of the same concious experience.

When you look at the rainbow, it loooks like it's located somewhere
between you and the horizon.  But you will not even reach it in a
lifetime.  It does not have a physical shape nor a physical location.
The rainbow is just light beams traveling trough air causing some kind
of optical illusion.  The acrual location, as you experience it is
better understood on the surface of your eye, or better still, in your
mind, and nowhere else.

So, if it does not have a meaningful existence outside of your
concious mind, then is it really part of the world around you?  Or is
it part of you?

When I contemplate the sunset, I look into the depths of my own soul.
When I pick a flower and sense it's smell, I experience a part of
myself that was latent in me before I took the flower in hand.

Many people identify with their clothes, but wearing a strange hat
won't change the color of the sky.  You may present yourself in any
way you want, but it will never change the feeling of dipping your
feet into cold water.

Vanity is not a sin, it is blindness.

- lindus