When The Other is Not You
Even more so than me seeing other people being as "other mes", I'm learning to recognize the "other mes" within myself. We can get so caught up in seeing the external world as a mirror and a reflection that we forget about the vast universe within ourselves where our true reflections (and projections) exist. I find myself most in touch with this in dream space where all of the characters showing up really are "other mes" (because outside of journey work with Spirit Guides, people cannot come into your dreams, whatever characters that are showing up are all you and created in your mind).
And because I'm aware of this I find the ideas I have in my head of who other people are, are just constructs of the mes within myself and they are not real. The real person IS real, they are not indeed "me", but the idea I have in my head is me. This is similar to the concept of empathy. We think we are feeling other people, but what we are really feeling is our own emotional-nervous system response to their emotions that we are picking up on via body language (neuroception). It's us within that is being reflected to us. Not the person without. Indeed that person is all to their own, soverign and not another me, but rather an entire universe with themself and God at the center.
If we can understand this we can do the work to really see people. Because to really see people means to simply exist with them rather than trying to reflect who we think they are, to ourselves (which is just us mirroring). So be with them. Let their universe and origin come forth without needing to project or seeing the mirror. Let THEM emerge. This is an entirely unselfish way of operating and is needed when we desire to hold presence with another and truly hear and see them. This is how we can allow others we are in relationship with to truly blossom.