In Buddhism, it also mention phrase that said life is just like a dream and we know that dream is just an illusion.
on my point of view, what we see, hear, or feel outside of our body is just a thing and they can’t make us angry, happy nor sad.
What give an emotion to the object is our own description that we give to the object or sound or experience.
When a dirty cup is on the table in reality, it’s just a dirty cup on the table.
But how we describe that item will change how we react looking at that cup
Person 1
Look at the cup and remember how his/her loved one used to drink a cup of coffee start to drop tears of joy or feel nostalgia.
Person 2
Look at the cup and remember the person who is annoying and always make him/her wash the dirty cup start to feel angry
Person 3
Look at the cup and just see it as a dirty cup, he/she never gives any description or emotional link towards the cup. The cup doesn’t create any emotion to this person at all. Person 3 just walk near to the cup and think to make me feel better, what should I do with this cup? Should I leave it and walk away? Should I take it and wash or just throw it away?
This happens not only when we see an item but also when we are in the middle of unpleasant experience such as trapped in a traffic jam. We know we can’t teleport and no matter how annoyed we feel, we will still trapped in the traffic jam until the road is clear. Why not we think of how to make our life happier while we are in the traffic jam?
When we look at ourselves into the mirror, we just see the reflection of ourselves. How we describe our own reflection will lead us to feel either better or worse.
How we describe an item, experience, person or sound is what gives us joy or hurt, thus we should be aware of our own thought and use our thought to help us shift situation the way we want to see and experience things. The choice is ours.