We live in times of 'peak fake', where people hire a fake mock-up of a lear-jet cabin to take photos of themselves pretending to their Instagram followers that they're living the jet-set livestyle!

To follow the path of Dhamma, we have to go into the opposite direction, we have to become real, true, authentic in our words, thoughts and actions. If we can't be frank, genuine and truthful even in simple external matters, we will never see through the deep-fake happening inside our minds all the time: The 5 groups of clining faking that they are permanent, that they are owned by us, and that they can give us true, lasting happiness.

In reality all 5 of them are fake:

1. The body/form is insubstantial like a lump of foam
2. Feeling is like the bubbles popping up in a puddle in heavy rain
3. Perception is like a mirage
4. Intention/volition is like a banana tree - we can peel away layers after layers from the stem, but will never reach real hardwood
5. Consciousness is like a magic show (or nowadays, we could also compare it to a movie/video/computer virtual reality)
6. Saṃutta Nikāya/Connected Discourses, 22 Khandhasaṃyutta, #95 'Simile of the lump of Foam'

Once we see that they are fake we can let go of them and experience liberation.

www.castbox.fm/ch/2744970

www.dhammagiri.org.au

www.tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive

www.facebook.com/dhammagiri-forest-hermitage

www.vimeo.com/dhammatalks