Maya – A relative Reality
Most of the time, when someone stirs up your temper and you feel the fire rising, it is not really about them. It is you wrestling with your own mental script. You are holding on to an invisible playbook of how things should be, and the moment life forgets its lines, you retaliate. In other words, reality is simply being reality, while you are busy auditioning for a director’s cut where the universe behaves according to your plan. Unfortunately, the truth is simple: life is just being life, but you are busy trying to direct the whole play. Sadly, the universe is not taking auditions for your version of “perfect.” It will throw life at life’s terms at you and with full force.
Anger and Maya are hence closely connected because anger often arises from being trapped in the illusion Maya creates. Maya, the cosmic illusion described in Hindu and Buddhist teachings, makes us believe that the world should follow our exact expectations and desires. When reality does not match these mental pictures, anger sparks as a reaction to this clash. In essence, anger is the response of the mind struggling against the illusion, resisting how things truly are rather than accepting the flow of life.
Embracing Maya is akin to upgrading from the cramped, turbulent economy class of everyday delusions to the spacious, serene first-class cabin of true enlightenment, where life’s bumps become mere anecdotes over champagne. Imagine reclining in wisdom’s lap, sipping on eternal truths, with legroom for the soul.
Either way, you end up trapped, like a soul trying to rearrange the furniture inside a dream. You find yourself arguing with a hallucination because it did not bring your coffee fast enough. By recognizing this connection, one can begin to loosen the grip of anger by seeing it as a product of illusion, which invites more acceptance and peace.