Q. What is obscuring our view?
A. Wrong view! We are looking the wrong way.

Let’s say ‘mistaken’ view. The problem is that we do not think this is important enough to rectify. We prefer to stick to what we ‘know’.

The Buddha, as a prince, was protected from the realities of ordinary life. Upon leaving the palace, he suddenly witnessed old age, sickness and death = suffering. From this, he saw the cause of suffering: a mistaken view of our true nature, and an identification with an accumulated I.

We have to see and realise this for ourselves. Books, teachings or ‘blogs’ can only hint at the truth, but the truth is in the experience. We have to recognise that the mundane (the familiar) is obscuring the supramundane (the transcendent).

Once we identify and recognise the obscuration, we are free
…until it comes back again. This why we practise.