Lux begets veritas
From Rabbi Rami Shapiro’s “Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler” column in the May-June 2008 issue of Spirituality & Health (bolding mine):
I have a Hindu friend who says that life is maya — illusion — but if life is maya, then nothing matters. Am I misunderstanding him?
A Hindu swami explained maya to me this way: Imagine that you wake up in the middle of the night to find a deadly snake coiled next to you on your bed. Filled with terror at the thought of being bitten, you spend the night frozen in fear. But as sunlight floods your room the next morning, you discover that the “snake” is really a belt you forgot to put away the night before. Maya is mistaking the belt for a snake and living in fear at your own illusion. Does the snake matter? No. Does the belt? Yes. It is your perception of life, not life itself, that is illusory.
