Reality or illusion?

Today I went to the dentist, to have a filling done on my tooth. I was handed a mirror so I could view what was taking place in my mouth. When I saw what was taking place I started to clench my fists and my facial expressions showed me anticipating pain, however it was impossible to feel any pain because of the anesthesia. I then thought how funny it is our mind can play tricks on us. When I was unable to view what was taking place, I was calm and collected, the minute I had a chance to see what was taking place I starting to become tense, in anticipation of pain.

Only through our senses (sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing) our mind can be aware of the state of our physical body, and based on what our senses report to our mind we then make decisions. In the case of people who have some form of mental illness, their minds experience things that aren’t necessarily what the senses experience. The point I am trying to make is this, if we are in full control of our mind, then we would be in full control of our senses and of our body. It is said that the ‘Satan’ lurking inside us, is really a result from an uncontrolled mind/body. For someone who is not in full control of their mind/body, they tend to make decisions they regret, they “live in the heat of the moment” and thus make spur of the moment decisions without rationally thinking about the consequences of their “rash” decision. I know we are all human beings and we are prone to make mistakes, however, if someone is making the same mistake over and over, then they need to do some inner reflection.

Another question is how can our mind differentiate between reality and illusion? This brings me to a famous dialog between a master and disciple.
“Why do you insist that my normal self is unreal?” a disciple once complained to his master.
“Why not put it the other way,” the master replied. “What makes you think you are real?”
“It’s obvious ,” said the disciple. “I think and feel and act. I know myself for who I am, with all my habits, my likes and dislikes.”
“Yes but what do you really know?” the master insisted. “Did you have your habits when you were asleep.”
“Of course not. I am unconscious when I am asleep.”
“Perhaps you are unconscious now.”
“No right now I am awake.”
“Really?” The master smiled. “Can you remember everything that happened to you yesterday? Or even what you were thinking an hour ago? Isn’t your self-awareness very selective, amounting to just a partial memory? And then there have your dreams, which you lose as soon as you wake up. Not to mention that your habits and preferences are always changing, and even when you do seem stable, don’t you emotions often betray you? An insult from a passing stranger can completely throw you off balance, or the news that someone close to you has died. Isn’t there also the problem of being lost in wishes, false hopes and various mental illusions?”
The disciple looked baffled. “All this may be true, sir, but none of it makes me unreal. Perhaps I am just very confused.”
The master shook his head. “If so, then everyone is just as confused. The truth is that what we call a person is constantly in flux. There are long stretches of forgotten time, not to mention our lapse of consciousness when we sleep. Memory is faulty, and only the mind’s craving for continuity keeps alive the illusion that ‘I’ is constant. ‘I’ is never constant. For every experience there is a different ‘experiencer’.”
“I am beginning to see what you mean,” the disciple said with considerably more humbleness. “Although you make it seem that nothing can be trusted.”
“Nothing about the changing personality can be trusted,” said the master, “But there is more to life than experience. Things come and go- feelings, events, and achievements. Pleasure is inevitably followed by pain. Success is bounded up with failure. Yet behind all of this show of change, something remains aware at all times. Find out what that awareness is and you will have what can be trusted. This is the way out of illusion."

The famous paleontologist and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once said, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; We are spiritual beings having a human experience."