Life is but a dream

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Different religions relate to the sense of sight in different ways. In Diana L. Eck's book Darsan: Seeing The Divine Image In India she compares and contrasts the difference between the traditions in the east and the west in relationship to sight. She writes that western traditions who have a propensity to hold God as something separate from what we can see condemn practices such as darsan that worship of a deity through sight. In contrast Eastern traditions tend to believe that one can see and be seen by the deity, a manifestation of God, because God is in all things.

The investigation of worship through sight in Eck's book has been truly illuminating and inspiring. It is especially fascinating to me in the context of Buddhist philosophy. Hinduism and Buddhism have many things in common. For example, the concept of every person having the light of God within them as referenced by the greeting Namaste corresponds to the buddhist principle that all living beings have Buddha nature. In buddhism sight is used in many ways. There are many meditation practices that use visualization, sight in ones minds eye, as well as physical worship of objects, statues, and paintings. In the midst of these practices however there is a greater underlying philosophy that relates to vision that I think is a valuable one.

It is an idea that does not only belong to Buddhism however, in fact even Shakespeare wrote about it in his plays. This idea is that life is a dream. When we examine the process of sight there is a key mysterious element that suggests that everything we "see" could be an illusion created by our brain. We trust our sight to be a true representation of "reality" however the discussions and lectures we had in class this last week suggested that sight may not be as true and reliable as we like to think. Therefore a possible conclusion to this perceptual riddle is that everything we experience is a dream. A friend gave me a copy of this small notecard as a gift and I keep it by my bed and read it often. Not only is this quote by H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche a thought provoking commentary on life but it also goes to show how religion works to help people navigate life's uncertainties.

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