The bottom line is this: each person is experiencing their own little world of hallucinations. We are all schizophrenic from one perspective. A world appears vividly to our mind, and we respond to that world as if it were actually real, when in reality it is nothing more than our karmic hallucinations. This is equally true for everyone. The only difference is some people’s hallucinations are more calm or “normal” than others. But they are all equally hallucinations.

The challenge is we each have a different set of hallucinations, and they don’t necessarily correspond to what others are hallucinating. So we may be acting in a PERFECTLY RATIONAL WAY relative to how the world is appearing to us, our family is likewise acting in a perfectly rational way relative to how the world is appearing to them, and the same is true for everyone else. For us, it might make no sense how our family or society are acting. For our family, it might make no sense how we are acting. Many can’t understand how society is acting, but it makes sense to them relative to their world. Everyone then accuses each other of being crazy and they are the only normal one. Nope, sorry, we are all crazy – just a different kind of crazy.

So what can we do to address this? There are two things I am aware of:

First, instead of fighting with people about why they act the way they do, we need to improve our communication with them so we at least mutually understand one another. Ask them questions about how they perceive things and why they act the way they do, not out of defensiveness, but in trying to understand the world as it appears to them. Likewise, we can share our perspective with them so they understand how the world appears to us and why we act the way we do. They will continue to think they are in reality and we are in crazy land, but that’s OK. We understand we are all crazy, just in different ways. But virtually all conflict comes from misunderstanding each other’s appearing worlds. If we take the time to understand the world appearing to their mind better, there will be less scope for misunderstanding and conflict. Things will externally pacify somewhat at best or we will understand better at worst.

Second, regardless of what appears, respond with Lamrim minds. It doesn’t matter even if everything appearing to our mind is schizophrenic hallucinations (I know it isn’t, but it also is like it is for everybody else). The point is this is HOW the world is currently appearing to us, whether it has any grounding in reality or not. How the world appears to us is NOTHING MORE than a mere karmic appearance to mind. But it is OUR karma. It is OUR karmic dream, every last bit of it. The only way to change the karmic dream is to change our karma. There is no other way. The way to change our karma is to change our actions.

It is possible for us to change our karma for the worse or for the better. The choice is ours. The way we change it for the better is by trying, to the best of our ability, to put the Lamrim into practice. Try to recognize we have a precious human life with which we can accomplish spiritual goals. Admit that we may die at any point and could fall into the lower realms. Generate qualified refuge in your mind. Follow assiduously the laws of karma. Generate the wish to wake up from all our contaminated karmic hallucinations. Generate the wish to help others do the same – they think they are in reality when they are just trapped in a different kind of crazy. Dissolve the guru into your heart, and ask him to work through you, to bless your mind, to guide you out. Above all, rely on Dorje Shugden, requesting him to arrange all the outer, inner, and secret conditions you need to advance along the path to enlightenment.

If we do these things in our daily life, responding to whatever arises with some Lamrim mind, Venerable Geshe-la 100% guarantees us that things will get better. Not right away. They could get worse in the short term, who knows what karma we have created or has ripened, but if we play the LONG GAME, it is 100% guaranteed if we change our actions, we will change our karma, and that will change what appears to us. There is no doubt about this. Tantric practice is just a super-charged method of doing this.

Both of these solutions will require a great deal of patience. Things will take time. But they will help. And they will work in the long run. It doesn’t matter how lost we are or where we find ourselves, it is never too late to start heading in the right direction. If we never give up, we will eventually get to where we want to go.