In other words, eating a bean burrito at Taco Bell is in our minds as much as the Land of Bliss, notwithstanding the fact that we can see here and now others can eat burritos at Taco Bell. The fact that an experience is public, i.e., others can experience it too, does not make it more real. (“Real” is a tricky word.)

Think about this. Your eating at Taco Bell is still experienced only by you, even though you can see others eating there too. (Hopefully not too many people!) In other words, the experience is all in your mind, as the colloquial expression goes.

Does this mean that anything one experiences in his mind is “real”? Well, in a very real sense, it is. From a Buddhist perspective, and I hate to generalize something like a “Buddhist perspective” but, anyways, sometimes it’s necessary, all that an individual mind stream experiences is real; it’s all karmic. Schizophrenics, for example, are perceiving imaginary entities, but these entities are still real to them. A karmic link of some kind exists in order for those experiences to manifest to that individual.

Individuals can have an infinite number of possible experiences, ranging from the hellish to the heavenly, even here on our planet, in this lifetime.

These experiences are all “in their minds.”

The Land of Bliss could be our actual experience if we cultivate the karmic connections to it. The doctrine states that only being mindful (reciting) Amita’s name a few times will inspire Amita to deliver us to his Land of Bliss. This will happen only in our minds.

We could also be reborn handicapped in a third world to hateful parents. This would also be only in our minds.

When you start probing and questioning “what is real”, you may start to find that this reality is not as solid as it appears to be.

Everything happens in our minds. Let’s not fall under the sway of this faulty objection.