Buddha was enlightened. Did the biggest of his followers reach his level, despite analysing and comprehending his teachings? They didn't. Same goes for Jiddu Krishnamurti, Adi Shankracharya, Mahaveer Jain, and all renowned intellectuals of the world. Truth be told, however profound someone is, and however hard they try to educate, their followers will never reach the level of their idols.
That's because the masters are not what their followers think, a significant part of them is perception created by the follower in their minds.
All of us love ourselves immensely since the time we are born. We convince ourselves that what we are doing is right, and we don't want to think that we are leading a terrible life because that will affect our survival on earth. But, there's a problem with liking ourselves.
When a child enjoys itself, it is pure and simple without any comparison. When the child grows up, society makes them think comparisons are cool, so they think they are leading a great life because they are richer than most others, their work is something very few do, and they are leading a better life than their school mates.
So, instead of liking oneself, one starts disliking others in order to boost their ego that they are in a better position than them. Even though all of us are eventually going to die, and are nothing when compared to the scale of the universe.
But then, the universe is not what we feel it is. The universe is a perception we've created in our mind that we support with scientific research done by others.
People are much happier before relationships because they have a certain perception of their companion based on how they themselves are, and as the reality dawns on them then they feel the relationship is a disaster. The disaster is experiencing something that is moulded by society, and having unreasonable justification that what you feel is the reality is the actual reality only, but it is not.
Because reality is just a perception, that we end up taking far too seriously.
