The old yoga texts have always talked about the display of the world as being a kind of illusion. Never before is this more evident than today. Every time you do a Google search or listen to a song on Spotify, the empire of AI is influencing your every move. More and more everything bears the mark of AI from the robot rep on United Airline to the title description of your favorite podcast. In fact, you might be wondering if this very written piece is AI generated.
Yogis have known for 2,000 years that everything is like a reflection in a mirror. “I see this life as a conjuration and a dream. Great compassion rises in my heart for those without a knowledge of this truth”, wrote the Tibetan yogi Milarepa. Now it is not that maya, the “mind-made” is unreal, inconsequential or bad. But as the Buddha taught in the first Noble Truth, it can be a cause of ongoing suffering.
Today maya runs the show. Politics, social media, the war, bitcoin, the president of the United States, doing yoga with a VR headset. The world today runs like maya on steroids. But you have to see through it all. When we see through the charades of the mind-maker, we come into a peaceful presence, a spacious liberty. Each day we form connection to a timeless presence. Then the whole world and everything in it evokes great empathy. It is accessible in the simple movement of the breath, the light of the morning sun, sharing company with a loved one. Each day when we yoke to the natural intelligence of the heart-rate, blood flow and nerve pulsation we touch into a state of serenity as old as the sun.
Photo: Patrick Fore / Unsplash
