Life here is an entry level reality
Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, enrolled in Benares Hindu University at the age of 22 in 1951 to study oriental philosophy. According to him, however, nothing much happened. He entered India an empirical scientist, and he left India an empirical scientist, not much wiser than he had been when he'd come.
Nevertheless, he'd been exposed to a lot and had acquired a kind of latent image that appeared in conjunction with many other latent images later on. In particular, one incident left such an impress of deep disgust in his mind that it made him "leave the classroom, leave India and give up."
Apparently, during the course of a lecture when the professor was blithely expounding on the illusory nature of the world for the umpteenth time, Pirsig finally decided he had had it up to there. Raising his hand, he sarcastically inquired if the professor believed the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also illusory. The man smiled and said yes. As far as Pirsig was concerned the answer was hopelessly inadequate in addressing the question of mass destruction of innocent human beings.
The same point is carried by an old story about Shankara, the eighth century Vedanta philosopher. Shankara was being challenged with regard to his teaching that the world is maya. "What would you do," the challenger asked, "if you were being chased by a wild elephant?" "I would run," Shankara replied. "Why would you run?" the challenger continued. "After all, by your own account, the elephant is merely an illusion." "I would run," Shankara retorted, "because I am part of the same illusion."
Shankara was basically talking about the existence of different levels of truth and reality and how they differed from each other. A higher level truth, for instance, could revoke a lower level truth on the higher level without revoking it on its own lower level. And, also, how a higher level reality could cause a lower level reality to vanish on the higher level without rendering the lower level reality illusory on its own level. Meaning, empirical scientists like Pirsig and professors of philosophy like the one he encountered at BHU both could have been much wiser if they understood that those who exist on the lower level have to take things like Hiroshima and Nagasaki very seriously, even though such incidents disappear at the highest level.
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