Looking Beyond the Veil of Illusion

In many eastern schools of thought, the world is nothing more than illusion. Ignorance is

believing the illusion and to stop ignorance you have to look beyond. How do you look beyond the veil of illusion? Do we even want to look beyond the veil of illusion?

Everyone individual was born unique. We all have a unique perspective that are different from anyone else. We share opinions in common but you see the world, uniquely, through your eyes. We make choices based on our perspective many a times. But our perspective is innately flawed because we are the only one who sees that way. So what should a person base their views on? If you can't count on your preception what can you count on?

In Buddhism, it is compassion that leads to enlightenment, and helps you overcome that ignorance. Everything is rooted in compassion. If you view everyone, yourself, your friends, your enemies and strangers with nuetrality with equal compassion then you take a step towards overcoming ignorance. Why should you love your enemies? Because your enemies are ignorant and should be pitied for doing harmful actions and accumulating bad karma. With the idea of reincarnation, you never know how your enemy could pop up in your next life. (mother, brother, sister) Good or bad actions accumulate karma. Accumulated karma is what gives you a favorable or unfavorable birth in your next life. It is through love and compassion, in stopping the suffering of others, that you truly break through the veil if ignorance. (Altruism)

So why are we born as we are, unique individuals with these unique perspectives? According to Buddhism again, we are born into a life of what karma we accumulated in the last. Past-life karma creates your position. We are continually reborn until we can transcend karma and try to attain Buddahood. Buddahood from my perspective is not becoming a God, which some would disagree, but is the highest goal of attainment for a human being. Buddha represents the highest transcendence of a human being.

We seem to spend a lot of time in life on ourselves and ego. We are naturally egocentric but has that ever brought you happiness? The more we focus on self, the tighter we wrap ourselves in the blanket of ignorance. We must transcend that ignorance if we wish to be happy.