How do you interpret the bracketed line in this quote?

“I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes. I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles. I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags. I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake in India as a drop of oil on my foot. I perceive the teachings of the world to be the illusion of magicians. [ I discern the highest conception of emancipation as a golden brocade in a dream ] , and view the holy path of the illuminated ones as flowers appearing in one's eyes. I see meditation as a pillar of a mountain, Nirvana as a nightmare of daytime. I look upon the judgment of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons”


- Siddhartha Gautama -

How do you interpret the bracketed line in this quote?
I think the point of the whole passage (including the bracketed part) is that people have a tendency to make mountains out of molehills, as the expression goes. We imagine higher things and greater meanings, but in the end it's all just a lot of nonsense.





All those things, they are part of the natural order of the world. As such, they are not any more special than any of the other things. The whole passage reads as if he was listening to a song when he said it or wrote it. And the words and the song flowed together. I think if you try to imagine the imagery he describes as one whole (the dust, the bricks and pebbles and so forth all to the traces of the four seasons), and the other stuff as another whole (the kings and rulers, gold and gems, all to the rise and fall of beliefs), you can see that they describe the same world, but from a different perspective. One world is very elegant, poetic, and natural, so full of harmony, while the other sounds cold, harsh, and completely inelegant and devoid of harmony. It sounds so "human" I'm almost tempted to say. Or rather, it sounds like the world and values we as humans insist on living in. The first world seems like almost a heavenly dream which we cannot bring ourselves to accept as real.
Reply:Typical Buddhist apathy. They think there's some profound virtue in being addicted to nothingness. For all their so-called "wisdom" they've made darn few contributions to humanity (outside of long-winded, confusing dialogs, koans and haiku.)
Reply:Just words, with no useful meaning or interpretation.
Reply:I think this is true.





I think this is the opposite of something Shinra would say is true.
Reply:Sounds like the writer is turning things around in that sentence compared to the ones before. At first it's saying extravagant things mean nothing then it compares emancipation (freedom) to an expensive silk cloth as if freedom means nothing. But the fact that it says discern at the beginning and it's flipped around makes me think it's saying freedom is a good thing.
Reply:I believe what the Buddha was trying to convey in the bracketed words (and, actually, in this entire passage) is that all is illusion. What we perceive in the physical realm and what we hold as the highest ideals (i.e. emancipation) are illusory and fleeting at best. They cannot be grasped and held, and ideals cannot be put on a pedestal because the mind that creates them and interprets them is itself imperfect and subject to the whims of ego.