Thoughts and Worlds

How we create the worlds that we live in.

A student writes:
"Although I feel that I have taken in some of the contents of the course books in the sense that I have gained some objectivity regarding anger and attachment, so far I have not taken on a satisfying meditation and daily life practice.
I have established a habit of daily meditation of twenty minutes in the morning and the evening. This is a short period considering the free time I have available. Moreover, I do it as a habit or an obligation rather than in terms of awareness development.
At best it seems to be a respite from emotional pressures of a disturbingly vacuous life. But mainly it's noisy with disconnected thoughts, sometimes stories and even music."

Lama Shenpen:
Have you looked at the new meditation booklet that I think is now available on Sanghaspace? I think you might benefit from having a new contact person to talk to you more on a regular basis about the meditation practice. If you would like that contact the office about it and tell them that I suggested it.

Student:
"The teachings on internet however, are very helpful giving the feeling of contact which I really appreciate.
But my life still centers around my obsessive attachment which seems to me more real than anything I've ever experienced. I feel in a way that I'm on another course learning about myself, about another person, about love and about this country I live in.
But I'm aware of the connection with the concepts of openness, clarity and sensitivity which enabled me to embark on this relationship. There is this split between what I can't help thinking of as the real world, actually the world of illusion of course, and the Buddhist path which still seems unreal emotionally. As I continue in the course, I hope that the intellectual and emotional understanding of reality will coincide."

Lama Shenpen:
I hope so too, that is what it aims to do.
I think you describe here very well what amazes us all - how what is unreal is so absorbing and how hard we find it to stay focused on the real. As you say it is an emotional problem, we invest so much emotion in the unreal world which is amazing really.
I often find myself thinking that if it were not for the emotions involved in it, then my life and everyone's life would be meaningless. The movements of thoughts are so subtle they would hardly count for anything, they seem less significant than the spinning of an electron around an atom, yet they create the whole world.
There would only be background radiation and tiny movements of subatomic particles but none of it would mean anything unless there were beings thinking and believing (emotionally investing) in the worlds that are made up of those things.
I think of the planet earth and how from far away it is so tiny it seems totally insignificant but for me it’s the whole drama of my life. Then I think of how it would be if nobody anywhere were having a life like this - then there would be no world anywhere! And if that seems depressing - as if we could simply do without being, we could just stop thinking and creating worlds like this - I realise it is not possible.
Whether I like it or not worlds are going to keep appearing to me and I am going to find myself living in them as if they were real. When I think this I am tremendously motivated to practice Dharma so that I can choose the kind of world I am going to find myself in!
It helps me start to experience the thought worlds as more real than the so called physical world and that makes liberation seem much more real as an option - I wonder if this makes sense to you?

Buddhism Connect