A Sense Of Proportion

There are stages or levels to realisation. To simplify, let’s say there are three:
Conventional reality.
Theory/doubt.
Realisation of our true reality.

Usually, we just live in conventional reality. We think like everyone else, with a slight doubt that maybe there is more, but we are not really bothered, and there is no realisation. Gradually, when doubt increases, conventional truth reduces, but still there is no realisation.

Now we reach a stage where, through doubt, we seek a way to understand; we acquire information and form theories, but still there’s no realisation.

And now it gets interesting, when we actually start to practise :-). Our holding on to conventional reality loosens. There is still doubt and theories but, through experience, the feeling that realisation is possible spurs us on.

What was 95% conventional reality, 5% theory/doubt and 0% realisation, has become 10% conventional reality, 89% theory/doubt and 1% realisation.

This rises to 5% conventional reality, 5% theory/doubt and 90% realisation: the balance of 5% conventional reality and 5% theory/doubt is needed to function in society.

(You may decide that the percentages are different).

We can assume that a Buddha is 100% realisation. If we only have 1% realisation in a lifetime, we should consider ourselves fortunate as, in 100 incarnations, we’ll be a Buddha! 🙂

All we have to do is drop exaggerations. If we ask, “Where am I now on this scale?”, the answer lies in how much we can work on our own – with empathy for others – as we have been through the early stages.

Ultimately, we have no sense of proportion as everything is an illusion, and therefore acts as a reminder. This is unity of the two truths of appearance and recognition: conventional reality appears, but is simultaneously recognised by pure consciousness as an illusion.