I had a very powerful dream a couple years ago and awoke with a single phrase in my head - a phrase so puzzling and wonderful that I had to write it down. The phrase was "Suffering is an illusion."
Let's look at it together.
This was an interesting statement - what did it mean. Buddha said that "life is suffering", the Hindu epics state that the world is nothing but 'Maya' (the Hindi equivalent of the word Illusion). Okay so...
Life = Suffering.
Life = Illusion
Suffering = Illusion.
Right?
Hm. Well let's look at suffering. What is suffering?
Suffering is any unwanted condition and the corresponding negative emotion. It is usually associated with pain and unhappiness, but any condition can be suffering if it is unwanted. Antonyms include happiness or pleasure.
(Wikipedia source)
Suffering, then, is caused by being in a condition or situation that you do not desire. So, let's look at this notion of what we desire. What we want.
Depends I guess on which part of yourself you're talking about. If we buy the notion that our spirit selves have set us out on a course in this life that will include both desirable and undesirable situations, but that we in face WANT to be in these situations to learn valuable spiritual truths, then nothing we experience, no matter how awful, is in fact UN-desired. It may not be desired by our conscious selves - our egos... But on some level it was our choice.
Of course there's also the natural argument that we're all in a false reality and therefore nothing is real because EVERYTHING is an illusion.
Who knows why my subconscious left me that message.. But it sure is fun to think about, n'est-ce pas?
By all means, if you have a better theory about my mysterious note to self - PLEASE share. Would mean the world.
Thanks,
Diana
