Page 3 - Seeking happiness in a place of misery

 Seeking happiness in a place of suffering I marvel every time I go window shopping. The scenes depict- ed in the windows and the dressed up mannequins fascinate me. The human still-life inside the window is a frozen second of time. The eyes of the mannequins are captivating. Eyes are the portals of the soul. If only they would blink, they would make the mannequins seem almost alive. Mannequins in a department store window The mannequins are like a shadow of something. The shadow indicates that there is a real object that has cast it. If, howev- er, I accept the shadow as the real object, that becomes my illusion. My hand may cast a shadow due to the sunlight being obstructed by it. If I try to shake hands with the shadow, I will be frustrated. The real hand is different than the shadow of the hand. It is the same for a mannequin of a beautiful woman nicely dressed standing still in a shop window. The mannequin is not a real woman. It is like the shadow of the hand that may appear real. In Sanskrit, this is called maya or illusion which means something is not a fact, but it appears like a fact. 3Â