From a Buddhist point of view, each aspect and moment of our lives is an illusion. According to the Buddha, it’s like seeing a black spot in the sky that you are unable to make sense of, then concentrating on it intensely until finally you are able to make out a flock of birds; or hearing a perfect echo that sounds exactly like a real person shouting back at you.
Life is nothing more than a continuous stream of sensory illusions, from the obvious ones, like fame and power, to those less easy to discern, like death, nosebleeds and headaches. Tragically, though, most human beings believe in what they see, and so the truth Buddha exposed about the illusory nature of life can be a little hard to swallow.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices
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Further quotes from the book Not for Happiness:
- What is merit
- Avoid being distracted
- Absolutely nothing genuinely works
- Self Trapped
- Remain alone and practise the dharma
- Not designed to cheer you up
- Sign of a mature practitioner
- No end to samsara’s sufferings
- Intention to benefit all sentient beings
- Wishing happiness for those who have hurt you
- Filtered perception
- Being able to start practicing right away
- Sources of our inspiration
- Rip that ego apart
- Relative and absolute truth
- It’s all a matter of motivation
- The decision to follow a spiritual path
- Three higher trainings
- Opposite direction to dharma