GENTLY WI-nSPERED
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exemplify the limits of this perception, let us consider not only the teachings of the Lord Buddha, but also those of such teachers as the third Gyalwa Karmapa, who repeatedly emphasized the illusory nature of all appearance and all the realms. Let us consider the situation of the dream. While dreaming, one conjures up all kinds of seemingly real experiences, and one can seemingly experience a great deal of happiness and/ or suffering. All the various emotions and experiences of the dream appear to be real. Yet, although one believes the experience to be something completely real and existent during the dream, it is obvious that this belief is delusional. As insubstantial, arising mental projections, dreams have no reality whatsoever. One recognizes this when one awakens from the dream. Compare this example of the dream to the perception of the six realms of samsara. Sentient beings continually experience one or more of these realms, rebirth after rebirth. Not all of these realms appear to the five human senses, yet this does not validate their lack of existence. In one sense they do exist, in that these are the realms in which the deluded nature of the mind reincarnates. Bound by the ignorance of delusion, sentient beings experience these realms, in one lifetime after another, believing their illusory experience to be real. However great the delusion of sentient beings, this does not ultimately substantiate these realms to be anything more than mere mental projections. From the viewpoint of absolute reality, the six realms of samsara are completely without independent reality. In a very poetic verse, the Buddha Shakyamuni questioned who made all the hot iron pavement, with its incessant flames and burning fire, in the hell realm. Was there any blacksmith who made that iron pavement? Was there any store of wood that caused the continuous fire? No, it is caused by karmic fruition, by the individual karmic accumulation, which results from misconceived clinging to the illusion of self and other as being substantial. If we are to avoid the suffering of continual reincarnation, we must apply ourselves to practice and recognize, to a degree at least, that the mind's true nature is emptiness, clarity, and unimpeded awareness. Then can we begin to understand and recognize the truth concerning the way in which phenomena are