Could It All Be Just An Ilusion?

There’s this funky song from the 80’s or 90’s, whose main lyrics go something like this:
“Could it be that, it’s just an illusion, in all this confusion?

Increasingly I think that this is the absolute truth. Especially in these times, when each of us is subjected to an assault of so much information each day(much of it unsolicited), and some of us seem eager to spend more and more time on the receiving end of all kinds of electronic and high tech stimulation.

When I take a step back, this is what I feel: So much of what we are subjected to is just so strange and bizarre, that there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY, that this is my reality, or a reality I want to live in…..lol. The information we are being “sold” is often so contentious, so ego-centric and more often than not amounts to what I like to call a “cult of personality or eccentricity” that is being thrown in our face.

I have been thinking about this for a long time, but this post was prompted by a conversation I had last week with someone. She asked me my opinion on the arrest of the Harvard professor in his home, and she was implying that Obama acted unwisely by initially labeling the police activity “stupid.” She then told me that this controversy really had “legs.” My response was that I was not that interested in this “controversy,” though I knew it was going on. In a way, it was just an illusion, where the attitude of the police and the Harvard professor both probably contributed to the situation; it became a pissing match.
Nothing really new there for me, but for this other person, this “controversy,” this external event was very important to her. Just think about the amount of time and money that was consumed by churning this event- I wonder if that time and money could be put to better use.

I am reminded of an old Buddhist saying of: “don’t give so much to the external.” What this means to me is : make your internal life very strong and don’t give so much weight to how things “appear,” since form is basically a changeable illusion that masks what is really happening. In this day and age when we are bombarded with so much negativity, and the expectation is that we should absorb it all, I often pull back internally, try not to give so much weight to “what is happening out there,” and try to simply enjoy my life every day.

What are your thoughts on this?