I didn't particularly like this film, but i did love this scene. It's just a reminder for those that know, and a lesson for those that don't. — punos
A Conversation with the Great Lama
(Who lives near me)
On Reality and Illusion
“Lama, I’ve heard that this world isn’t real,
That all we perceive is mere illusion’s deal—
That rain isn’t wet, and pain doesn’t hurt,
And nothing that seems to exist is quite real.”
“Indeed, that’s the teaching passed down through time,
That reality’s nature is more sublime
Than what our senses tell us is true.
Tell me, does this help when your problems climb?”
“Well, Lama, I’ve tried to see through the veil,
To treat life’s hard knocks as just details that fail
To pierce the true nature of ultimate truth—
But hunger still hungers, and storms still assail.
“The sunrise still wakes me, the night makes me sleep,
My heart still can love, and my eyes still can weep,
Each moment feels solid, each pain cuts as sharp
As if this illusion weren’t merely skin-deep.”
“You speak what you find with admirable sight.
The world does persist, through both day and night,
Appearing exactly, in every small way,
As if the illusion were really quite right.”
“But Lama, this puzzles my practical mind:
If something looks real, and no test can find
A difference between the false and the true,
Then what does it mean to leave reality behind?”
“Ah now, dear seeker, you touch something deep—
The paradox many find hard to keep:
How can the unreal seem perfectly real,
Yet still be untrue as a dream in our sleep?
“For when I am hungry, rice fills my bowl,
And when I am weary, rest makes me whole,
Each cause has effect, each action bears fruit,
As if the illusion were truth’s very soul.
“You notice with wisdom how things seem to be,
How perfectly matched is all that we see,
How every detail of life’s complex dance
Performs as if real—that’s the mystery.”
“Then Lama, forgive me, but I must say plain:
A difference that makes no difference at train
Of thought or experience, action or choice,
Seems rather like truth with a different name.”
“You’ve stumbled on something worth contemplating—
Perhaps the distinction we’ve been debating
Is itself an illusion, a conceptual trap,
A duality not worth celebrating.”
“Are you saying, Lama, the teaching itself
Might be like a book on the wisdom shelf
That points to a truth beyond true and false,
Beyond the division of self and not-self?”
“Now there’s a question worth sitting with long,
As deep as a temple bell’s evening song!
Perhaps the real truth lies not in the words,
But in seeing through both ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’”
“So whether it’s real or a dream that we see,
The point isn’t arguing what it might be,
But living each moment with full presence here,
Accepting what is, letting all else flow free?”
“Your wisdom grows like a lotus in rain,
Finding truth beyond pleasure and pain.
The question of real versus unreal fades
When we stop trying to grasp and explain.”
“Then maybe the teaching’s not meant to deny
The world that we live in, or label as lie
The experiences filling our everyday lives,
But to free us from concepts that make the soul sigh?”
“You’ve touched the heart of the matter at last:
The teaching’s not meant to deny what is vast
And present before us, but free us to live
Unbound by the concepts we cling to so fast.”
"So Lama, perhaps we can say this is true:
The world that we live in, both ancient and new,
Is neither illusion nor solid-set fact,
But something more subtle, seen fresh and anew?”
“Now that’s a wisdom worth taking to heart—
Beyond the false wisdom of tearing apart
What’s real and unreal, true self and false self,
Is simply this moment, where all things start.”