Hi All,
i was reading an interesting book by Mingyur Rinpoche on the joy of living. In his book he discussed the the topic on emptiness, in which he described all phenomenas as arising from our mind in emptiness. Life as described seems to be like a dream arising from emptiness. There is seemingly nothing real , for instance, those events which already happened in our past is like a dream . Is our whole human existence really an illusion enacted by our past actions ? I have this
feeling of things being so unreal...see the excerpt below from the book.
He illustrated this point through a story about a young man who came to a great master in search of a profound teaching. The master agreed but suggested the young man first have a cup of tea. “ After that,” he said,” I'll give the profound teaching you've come looking for.”
So the master poured a cup of tea, and as the student brought it to his mouth, the cup of tea transformed itself into a broad lake surrounded by mountains. As he stood beside the lake, admiring the beauty of the scene, a girl steppped from behind him and approached the lake to gather water in a pail. For the young man, it was love at first sight, and as the girl looked at the young man standing beside the lake, she fell in love with him , too. The young man followed her back to her home, where she lived with her aged parents. Gradually, the girl's parents grew to be fond of the young man, and he of them, and it was eventually agreed that the two young people should marry.
After three years, the couple's first child was born, a son. A few years later a daughter was born. The children grew up happy and strong, until one day, at the age of fourteen, the son fell ill. None of the medicines prescribed for him cured his illness. Within a year he was dead.
Not long afterward , the couple's young daughter went to gather wood in the forest , and while she was busy with her task, she was attacked and killed by a tiger. Unable to overcome her sorrow over losing both her children, the young man's wife eventually decided to drown herself in the nearby lake. Distraught over the loss of their daughter and their grandchildren, the girl's parents stopped eating , eventually starving themselves to death. Having lost his wife, his children, and his parents-in-law, the young man began to think that he might as well die himself. He walked to the edge of the lake, determined to drown himself.
Just as he was about to jump into the water, however, he suddenly found himself back in the master's house, holding his cup of tea up to his lips. Though he had lived an entire lifetime, hardly an instant had passed;the cup was still warm in his hands and the tea was still hot.
He looked across the table at the teacher , who nodded , saying, “Now, you see. All phenomena proceed from the mind, which is emptiness. They do not truly exist except in the mind, but they are not nothingness. There is your profound teaching.”
