The World I Create

In Chan and Enlightenment, Master Sheng Yen remarks:


At the present time, our world cannot yet be called a pure land on earth. The environment in which we live is actually a reflection of our mental state. Different individuals with divergent states of mind will experience the world differently. (p.115)


This statement is quite profound if a person looks at it deeply, which is quite hard to do. For instance, if a person's mindset is always grasping for fame or friendship, or some other social asset in life, then they will tend to see their world as a battlefield of 'win' and 'lose', and so everything will be interpreted as either very exciting, very boring, or every aversive, depending on how it relates to the self. If on the other hand, a person just got out of a hospital having survived a major life-threatening illness, chances are that their world may be quite different from that of grasping. It would be much more filled with gratitude and relief. This all relates to a person's expectations, as well as the sense of joy that comes from the unexpected. Can anyone consciously cultivate such a gratitude that life has been given to me for yet one more day?


Master Sheng Yen further remarks, "If we are psychologically unhealthy, afflicted, or depressed, the world we perceive, as well as our immediate environment, will also fall short of our expectations" (ibid). What I find interesting about this quote is that I do wonder how much of depression is actually resulting from overly high expectations. For example, I often expect others to appreciate and understand what I am saying, or make an effort to do so. But I don't realize that others have their own business to attend to, and there are times when misunderstandings are bound to occur. More often than not, people are simply not on the same page at all. In that case, a person can either become very downtrodden about it, or they can see that actually there is an opportunity to turn inward and ask oneself, "do I need these kinds of validations to survive personally?" "Am I terrible if I don't get these forms of validation, or is it okay if sometimes I simply don't?" These kinds of things challenge the self that always expects to receive things in a certain way that accords with its own liking.


When one simply does not get what one wants, there is definitely an opportunity to cultivate there. One is to let go of demanding expectations of others, but there is a deeper practice, and that is to challenge the sense of self that is behind these expectations. Is the self that one is trying to defend really so endearing and permanent? Again, it takes some time for this point to sink in. But without this kind of practice, it can hard to resist the temptation to defend the self and to create a world around it. I think this is where meditative practice and Dharma concepts become so vital to one's mental health.




Shengyen (2014). Chan and Enlighenment. Elmhurst: Dharma Drum Publications.