Like an illusion

Experience of our days is up and down. This is on the outside and superficial. As we practice more, an inner experience begins to permeate our whole experience, our whole being. At first it waxes and wanes. With time and practice it becomes more stable, and becomes the ground for our inner refuge. With time it becomes fused with love and compassion. With time the love and compassion become fused with the wisdom realizing that everything is like an illusion. ‘I’ am like an illusion. ‘All sentient beings’ are like an illusion. And the ‘act of love and compassion’ is also like an illusion. This wisdom realizes that appearances are mistaken. Appearances are not real. Reality is beyond appearances, and beyond thought and language. Slowly this becomes our inner experience, our inner refuge. This photo is of HH Dalai Lama during his Geshe examination in Lhasa in 1959