A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.
Buddha
Image from:
Wikipedia
The above quote appeared on Google+ last month from Famous Quotes.
This conversation arose last month with the same person who recommended The Modern Book of the Dead to me. We sometimes have many esoteric conversations and we recently spoke about this very topic, which once again proves my point of how connected everything is.
What is real? That’s the question I asked my friend. You know nothing is real, right?
Everything is perception.
Everything is energy.
We only see what we think we see.
What makes the sky blue and the grass green? These are questions I asked my friend as well. These are questions I contemplate ALL the time. Call me crazy; but now that I’m in this paradigm, this is where my thoughts wander.
Everything truly is illusion!
The world is made up of atoms, energy and we simply perceive what we’ve been taught to see. What if everything we’ve been taught is also illusionary? Our teachers are only parroting what they’ve been told.
As far as the wise man escaping suffering goes, I’m not sure anyone can entirely escape that. For it is through suffering, it is through facing challenges that we grow, that we evolve spiritually. What’s the use or incarnating into the physical if we are not going to suffer, if we are not going to use those challenges to grow, to mature, to evolve? We may as well stay in our natural state then, one of light, one of energy, one of spiritual power.
Buddha and Buddhism hold many truths for me and as I’ve mentioned here previously, this is where I feel most comfortable with one glaring exception. You’ll have to read my category on Buddhism to discover the exception, unless you are already aware of what that is.
The computer screen you’re looking at at this very moment?
The chair you’re sitting in?
Or the ground you’re standing on?
Are these real?
You know my answer. Now you must decide for yourself. I’m reminded of the Moody Blues here with the song Knights in White Satin:
We get to choose what is real and what is illusion.
Which will you choose?
Be Happy! Be Well! Be Positive!
Blessings to you.
—
Chris
Once you realize that life is eternal,
That our souls our eternal,
That we return to light and physical over and over;
We then lose all our distress
We then lose all our fear of dying. For there truly is no end.
