tissue paper thin

This is personal mental image for emptiness that has been really resonant for me, arising from an experience taking MDMA with a friend I'd been having some minor conflict with.

I saw both of us as pure spiritual essences that just wanted the world to be good, made of the same pure light, fundamentally not different. But these essences animate the giant lumbering machines of our respective psychologies, which do have different content. These psychologies are complex, intimidating arrangements of gears and spikes and protective armor: mechanical exoskeletons built up through the causes and conditions of our interactions with a cruel world. They can be only loosely controlled, so they lurch around awkwardly and often seem to clash and grind against each other.

The precious view is that, although it seems like these psychologies are made of thick, solid metal, they are actually just tissue paper: wispy, translucent, insubstantial, totally incapable of containing or constraining the 'pure light' essences that animate them. The light can leak out, can recognize itself leaking out from the other, and in doing so it can see these exquisite tissue paper constructions as beautiful things, their apparent clashes as inconsequential, not a problem at all.

This image has been really powerful to bring up in meditation. Even when I'm only introspecting myself, it's a powerful reminder that "I" am not my psychology and that my psychology is not a problem. It's also a really lovely ally of metta practice and seeing common humanity.