Vāsanās are the sole measure of the world’s burdens

Every burden you carry is measured by the vāsanā that makes it heavy. The same event is unbearable to one person and trivial to another — not because the event changes, but because the vāsanās that interpret it differ. Vasiṣṭha’s point is not that suffering is imaginary but that its weight is proportional to the identification that amplifies it. A burned hand hurts; a burned hand of someone you love hurts differently. The fire is the same; the vāsanā of identification determines the suffering.