Exploring a common illusion
There's a group of exuberant young adults at the table next to us. 
They look like university students on spring break. You gesture towards them. “Do you think they struggle, suffer, and have challenges?” 
"Of course! They’re HUMON. Reality won't be as they want, either. But they are also here in The Kingdom which means they are doing the work. To varying degrees, they will be more skillful. They will have fewer challenges, and challenges of a higher quality.” I gesture towards your glasses. “You still have the glasses – put them on.”
“You can do that? I won’t dematerialize and appear back at Bruno's?”
I like your humor. “Not when you’re already in The Kingdom." 
“Will I become invisible?"
I shake my head. "No."
“It feels like an invasion of privacy.” 
“Everyone in The CKINGDOM uses the glasses. They help us learn and grow.”
The waitress puts down a plate of bratwursts, a pretzel, two ramekins of mustard, and two steins of their iced hibiscus tea with limes. Each stein has a hibiscus flower on it.
"Wow, what a beautiful drink." You look at the waitress. "Thank you."
I adjust the flower. “It is BEETIFUL. Thank you."
“You're welcome. May I get you anything else?"
You gesture to everything around us. “I am grateful for all of this."
The waitress smiles. "I know that feeling."
Now that food is here, I am hungry. "I'm glad food came. The Kingdom can know us better than we know ourselves." 
You pick up the glasses. “Are you sure I can put these on?”
“Everybody here does it, unless they're new and uncertain like you."
We laugh. You put the glasses on and look around. I see it impact you. You can’t help but to be affected by seeing people fully. The hibiscus tea is exactly what I needed: refreshing and delicious. I tear off a piece of pretzel and dip it in the mustard. It's also delicious. "The poet Longfellow said, 'If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each one's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.'” 
"I will forever be changed by this, Jack." You're looking at the university students.
"Some say this is The School of Life. They say we come here to learn. They say that our experiences are here to teach us. They say that life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you. One of my teachers used to say, 'Welcome to The School of Life. Now take the curriculum, do the work, learn your lessons, and become more skillful.'"
"People here have less suffering than in New York. I see how they've learned and grown.”
“When you do the work, you become more skillful. You get to a place where you can navigate challenges more easily. You no longer resent challenges. You face them, embrace them, learn, and grow. You move forward. You then get fewer challenges, and challenges of a higher quality.”
You take the glasses off, then set them on the table. “If everyone knew everyone like this, we would have more compassion, kindness, and cooperation."
"Humanity 2.0." I turn the stein and the hibiscus drink moves with the ice. "It's a pervasive illusion that others are living idyllic lives without challenges. It's easy to fall prey to this illusion. In a way, it's a cultural sickness, and even a shortcoming of the mind, that we so easily believe that life shouldn't have challenges. Social media, marketing, and even the mind itself contribute to this illusion.” I take a drink.
“How do social media, marketing, and the mind contribute to the illusion of a life free from challenges?"
"Well, look at social media. People like to put their best foot forward. They share that which reflects well on them. They craft positive personaes. They record videos over and over until they get it just right. They find the perfect angle for their selfies. Lighting, make-up, and editing are all involved. They compose, then recompose tweets. The net result is a skewed portrayal of reality, and the illusion of people living lives that look like they're free from challenges. Their lives look amazing, and ours, well, not so much. We have to live through the stuff that isn't edited out, that isn't shot from the perfect angle, and that isn't set to an energetic and peppy soundtrack.”
We laugh.
I eat a piece of bratwurst, which is also delicious.
"Marketing also contributes to the illusion of a life free from challenges. Selling you an idyllic life is the purpose of marketing. Marketing says to us, 'Hey, your life sucks, but if you buy this, your life will be better.' Marketing's one big insult, that's what it is. Marketing says, 'Aren't you tired of challenges? Don't you want to just travel the world and have fun? You could be playing beach volleyball with beautiful people while drinking craft beer. Well, you might not get the beach volleyball with beautiful people part, but you can get the craft beer right now for just $17.99.'"
We laugh more.
"That's tragically true," you comment.
“Marketing is insidious. Corporations hire the best psychologists to figure out how to manipulate us into consuming more. Marketing is tailored to make us feel inadequate, deficient, incomplete, and discontent. If you're content, you are not a good consumer. Marketing exists to make us discontent so that we'll buy more.”
“That's dystopic."
“Yes, it is," I say. "Here's the irony, though. Research shows that happiness and contentment are higher in developing countries that aren't as inundated with commercialism, materialism, and marketing. So if you live where you can have it all, you're more likely to be discontent. And if you live where you don't have much, you're more likely to be content."
"That's irony, alright.”
“So there's social media and marketing, and then there's even a part of the mind itself that contributes to the illusion of a life free from challenges," I continue. "This is what I call the ‘If only’ fantasizing part of the mind. It says things like, 'If only I had a Tesla, if only I lived there, if only that person was my partner, if only I had more money, if only I had a better job, if only I had fame, if only I had a different body, if only ... if only ... if only ... then I would be happy, then I would be content, and then I would enjoy my life.'" 
"The ‘if only’ fantasizing mind," you repeat. "That's a great description."
“If you aren't aware of this part of the mind, to varying degrees, it will create suffering for you. It will prevent you from appreciating what you've already been given. It will make you believe in the empty promise that you will enjoy life at some future point in time. It will make you wish you had some other life. It can even make you hate your life.”
"They should teach this in school."
"We have room for improvement," I agree. "When you know about the ‘if only’ fantasizing part of the mind, you can use it skillfully. You can dismiss ridiculous fantasies. You can say to yourself, 'That's ridiculous. How many people actually have a private jet? How many people actually achieve the success of Oprah and Elon Musk? Would I really be happier if I had a Tesla?' You can use discernment to ask yourself questions like, 'What really makes me happy? What really contributes to a fulfilling life? What is important to me, and how should I best spend my time?'" 
“You say things that are obvious, but that I have never seen before."
“When you know about the ‘if only’ fantasizing part of the mind, you can also use it to create visions for your life that are skillful. You can say, 'That mountaintop over there, that is where I am going.' You can then head in a skillful direction towards a skillful destination.” 
“Let me make sure I've got this. Social media, marketing, and the ‘if only’ fantasizing part of the mind all contribute to the illusion that there is a life free from challenges. When we believe this illusion, it makes us discontent. A more skillful perspective, however, is to know that challenges are par for the course. This allows us to face them, learn, and grow. This allows us to realize fewer challenges, and challenges of a higher quality.”
“That's a great summary."
“We can also use the ‘if only’ fantasizing part of the mind to create skillful visions. We can fantasize about a skillful life. That mountaintop over there, that's where I am going."
"You've got it. You're learning the theory. We learn the theory, and then we apply it. First, someone tells us how to play basketball, then we go onto the court and play ball."
"I like the distinction of learning from both theory and experience."
"You need them both, and we have more of both coming."
