Why is living this material, physical life considered as unreal or an illusion orin the Sanskrit view is called Maya? Most of us would consider even the very idea itself is an illusion,perhaps a grand- illusion. However for thousand of years since man learned to think and analyze about the nature of our existence, this concept has been held as to be the truth by many major religions and spiritual teachings; what you behold in this physical realm is not real. It is, most have agreed to as mental formations, collective as well as individual; thoughts manifesting into forms and consciousness.Just as a sculptor would create a sculpture out of a pieceof marble through his imagination and creative technique, so is the rest of forms that we see before us in and around ourselves are created through our collective imaginations, positively or otherwise; we created this Universe that we live in as they say. Far fetched? Perhaps. but for age man the inquisitive animal has dwell on this subject with deep consideration from every angles and aspect albeit scientifically or religiously. The enquirers into this phenomena have been relentless in the pursuit for a thorough understanding into the matter and those who stood in defence against this concept are no less as staunch in their stand.
So is this world of ours, this so called realm of existence real or is it just a pigment of our collective imagination? It is a question that we each have to come to our own personal conclusion just as the question, does God exist. At least for those of us who who have doubts and are not easily and blindly led by the faith and belief of the masses. We each and everyone of us have to seek and discover the truth to this enigma. The human mind is a tool that is not easily pacify by unproven concepts or realities, it is by its very nature a tool that dissects, investigates, until a right understanding is achieved and when this happens it is called enlightenment, minor or major depending upon the nature of this achievement. Eurika! Now i understand why birds can fly! Yes, this perhaps is a minor enlightenment, a state of what the Zen Buddhist call -Satori; I like calling inini-miracles. It happens to all of us at anytime of our lives and most of the time it goes unnoticed. Most of us take for granted that things just happens and no need to look any further just accept and move on, however some stop to think, to contemplate to ponder over the hows and the when and the why and these are the seekers, the ones that look witihin more so than without for answers. They are the ones that tries to connect the dots and complete the puzzle, they are often considered the radicals, the problematic ones by society at large as they find themselves at odds with what society has to offer them as answers.
Science has been proving that matter is a flux of energy and subatomic particles being gathered together by gravitational pull and thus it is in reality the material objects including life forms are is essence made up of atomic particles. The theory of evolution further led us to beleive that man has evolved from the same single cell that all life forms originated from each evolving accordingly to its environment, and the adaptation towards the survival of the species. Against this principle, religions has doubted that the origin of man was from the lineage of the primates and man especially was introduced into the physical environment at a latter stage by the act of God. To doubt this is very serious offence in most major religions especially the mono theistic religions of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic faith. I have yet to come across any source of the Hindu and Buddhist stand on this issue; how was man created with the form that he possesses. Perhaps now that I have raised the question the answer will one day materialize in some form of scriptures n the Vedic tradition. In the Far Eastern countries like China, Japan and Korea among others there is no mention of how man evolved as a specie and it is almost as though t is an accepted fact that man simply appeared on earth as he is since the beginning. I will keep an open mind toward whatever will arise with regard to this knowledge and understanding. To me it is a crucial part of the puzzle that needs to be revealed for my own self discovery or the answer to my question of...Who or what am I?
Is this world we live in real? Is our temperary existence real? We have been given some time to find out and the journey to find out the answer lies within us for how we perceiive the world depends entirely on how we perceive ourselves. To perceive ourselves we have to journey inwards discovering the very nature of our genetic and spiritual nature; that which calls itself I. For eery lesson learned every discovery made, we unshackle ourselves from the conditioning of the external forms and we remove the veils that stand between us of what is unreal revealing the real. This we have to act upon and not merely acknowledge as a perception, we have to realize the truth behind all the falsehood and remove the darkness of ignorance by replacing it with the light of our inherent wisdom. Man is endowed with intelligence and if the theory of evolution is to be a criteria, human intelligence should by now become transcendental if not divine. In Islam it is said man has been placed upon this earth to be the caretaker and our intelligence is the tool that we are given in order that we may fulfill our designated task. However looking at where we are at and tha dire fate of the planet, it would be ironic that the reverse is true. Man has become worse than his fellow creatures destroying the very thing he has been assigned to care for.
Self realization is the key to our very survival and to fully understand an accept the fact we are the specie that is at the very top of the food chain and at the same time the worse of the lot is answer to our predicament. We need to come to grip with the reality that we are responsible not only to ourselves but to the whole wellbeing of existence and in rder to realize this we have work to do. We have to educate or uneducate ourselves from the conditioning that we have been led into fro childhood, to realize that we live live on a borrowed time and that we share the smae fate as the rest of our fellow creatures. What we do with this our allotted time is decisive in ensuring that the God given intelligence and wisdom that we have does not go to waste or worse being put to negative actions. We have to earn the right to become the caretaker or caregiver as the case may be and by our very nature help to heal and propagate wellness where suffering persist. If we are not able to do so, at the very least we are to resist from becoming the cause for suffering to others. By acknowledging that this life is impermanent and so is everything in it we must propagate the yer for the permanence that will help to keep this existence of ours free from excessive pain and suffering; this is the real.
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