[...] think for a moment of being in a movie theater, completely engrossed in the story. We might fell happy, sad, excited, or terrified, all depending on the movie being shown. Now imagine looking up and seeing the movie being projected on the screen. We realize that nothing is really happening on the screen except for the play of light and color. There is no one there actually falling in love and dying. Yet when we’re absorbed in the story, it all feels very real. Going further, what happens to our experience of even the light if there’s no place for it to land - no screen, not even particles of dust in the air? The light is unmanifest if there’s no object on which it can land.
Joseph Goldstein - Mindfulness
