Unawareness of the illusory nature of one's world is sustained by this attitude. It is in this world of illusion, of strange dreams, that Zen can act as the alarm clock that awakens one to one's own true being. One is unable to give wholly and also unable to receive wholly. We live in a world of boundaries and severe limitations. In this condition, many of us feverishly search for gratification of the senses, the hedonistic escape.
Some people practice asceticism, or severe self denial, while others speak of stoic acceptance.
It says you must unravel this Gordian knot yourself. Idle speculations are only a way of avoiding the problem, and at the same time, they strengthen the illusion of duality. It is only when one is whole that one truly lives. When life is no longer a collection of colliding pieces, but a living whole, then the universe and the person are not alienated. Within oneself one is whole and life's energies are not depleted by inner struggles.