..续本文上一页d but for long periods of time, to see that we”ve been seeing it in the wrong way. It”s not a ship after all, it”s just a bicycle on the steps. It”s not a self after all, it”s just a process. Life is not such a bowl of cherries, life is a bowl of rotten eggs!
And the other interesting thing about this experiment, is that they found that images which were repulsive, which were abhorrent, took people much longer exposures to see them as they really are. One of the images they showed on the screen was of two copulating dogs. And that took the longest of all the images for them to figure out what it really was. The reason was because they didn”t want to see that - that was repulsive. If it had been an image of, like, a beautiful model, they would have seen that in a few seconds. But they didn”t want to see it and therefore they didn”t want to see it. And that was really fascinating because that was reinforcing what the Buddha”s been saying for, like, twenty five centuries. That with the hindrances operating, we only see what we want to see. We don”t see what”s real. And sometimes the exposure need to be so long and right in front of our face before we truly admit what”s going on in the world.
But with suffering, this is the problem - we don”t want to see suffering, therefore we don”t see it. We live in a fantasy world, that life is happy, that you get married and you”re happy ever after. You get the perfect relationship. I remember one lady kept on telling me, no matter what I said to her about Buddhism, she said "I know he”s out there somewhere - the perfect man for me. It”s just that I have not met him yet. I don”t know where he is, but I know he”s out there somewhere". And she was in her late forties and she still said stupid things! People live in fantasy land most of the time - not real at all. Or the people that think that if you get the right medicines then you never need to die, and that aging is something that is healable, curable, something which is not necessary. All these ideas, the fantasies which people have, are just not being real.
So when we start looking at the truth of dukkha, we have to be very courageous to see that. Not just courageous, but we have to be very sneaky as well. And again, this is why we do something like the jhana meditations, because we feel so happy, so peaceful (like the husband or wife who”s been taken out by their partner to a beautiful dinner), and the feeling”s so rested, so at peace, that we”re actually open to seeing or hearing what we don”t want to hear, what we didn”t want to see. That”s how you sneak up on dukkha, and you can finally accept it. There”s one particular area of dukkha which we don”t want to see - at least we think that we”re happy. That”s why when you go home from this retreat, doesn”t matter how much suffering you have on a retreat, when you go home again you say it was really worthwhile, it was really good. Because you”d look like such a fool if you said it was really terrible, full of suffering, that you spent all this money on this. Even on retreats where you have to go through a lot of physical pain, you get conned into saying that it was a lot of pain but that you discovered something wonderful. If you didn”t say that you”d be really embarrassed that you”d been wasting this time.
It”s the same as when you go on holiday. Everyone who goes on holiday, when they come back afterwards and their friends ask "how was it
", they say they had a wonderful time. Even though you”re lying through your teeth. Even though you had a terrible time. Because it makes you sound so foolish if you say you had a terrible time going through customs, the hotel was rotten, it rained all the time, that you had arguments with the person you went with… you”d feel such a fool! And also it”s ju…
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