7.4.15

Sentient Beings are Buddhas

Our reality, our life is this present world of experiences. Every moment we have visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile and mental experiences. That is where we and our whole world exist. The first five we call the bodily senses and impressions from the material world, while the last one is the inner world of mind. And they all exist as conscious phenomena that we systematise in a conceptual framework, like objective and subjective.

What we can readily tell about our experiences is that they are universally impermanent, changing moment by moment. While we form a mental narration, the story of our life, all the time, that exists only in the realm of abstract concepts, and the actual experiences are always passing away without a moment delay. That means that whatever we like or dislike, consider as this or that, they are all without exception mental concepts, ideas and thoughts. At the same time, those very thoughts are also just passing away every moment.

Problems therefore are only our own making, just like everything else. To be mesmerised by the illusory world is to get lost in thoughts and ideas. It is illusory in the sense that it's built up by concepts that are themselves without any basis, thoughts that just come and go. Getting lost means thinking that there is a graspable essence in concepts, that they are important and real. Awakening from the dreamworld thus means seeing that all experiences are impermanent and insubstantial, that thoughts, concepts and ideas are ephemeral and unstable.

Although us, the world, this whole reality of experiences are already changing every moment, if that is not understood and seen clearly, we fall into the web of illusory concepts. Once the actual nature of everything is clear, there is no more reason to worry or fear, and simultaneously we can be open and embracing towards all that happens. That is the world experienced not in a narrow, self-centred, obsessed way, but as something alive, vivid, loving and peaceful.

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