Tag Archives: Samsara

We should also realize that crises are not an unusual visitation, but a normal part of life. Rather than ask, “Why did this happen to me?”, we do better to simply accept that it has happened, that crises happen to everyone and just get on with learning to deal with it and move on. In any life, we can expect a smooth period where all goes well, followed by an unexpected crisis. You get over the crisis, and recover that smooth road… and then you get hit by another crisis. Sometimes, you get more than one at the same time.

It is often said in spiritual teachings that the world is an illusion, suffering is unreal, and that Good and Evil are dualistic fantasies. Doubtless, this is all well and good. Yet, how do we reconcile this with the fact that all of this seems very real indeed to the vast majority of us? As I pondered this one day, an interesting metaphor came to my mind that might well go some way towards illustrating this...

What is reality? Each of us has our personal read on it. Yet, nobody knows for certain. Each of us is locked into our own paradigm, and can only see things that way. The same world in which we all live, is actually totally different, depending upon who is viewing it. It is perhaps for this reason, more than any other, that the world abounds with conflict.

When we awaken from dreams, we realize that they were not real, but entirely of our own creation. In a dream, you are the participant as well as the creator of all the other characters and the settings. In like manner, everyday reality can also be viewed from this dream perspective; a dream from which each of us will one day awaken to realize that this too was an illusion of earthly consciousness.