This might sound like a paradox, and it actually is. It has been created within the human mind and has no other meaning or purpose other than creating a nice excuse to abdicate our responsibility upon this world and everything/ everyone involved in it.
In Buddhism, there is little doubt that to view the world as an illusion was a conception designed with a specific purpose. It is a spiritual device. One aspect of that purpose was to loosen the ties with the material world (with samsara) and so to encourage practitioners to turn away from the world. Thus, so loosened, one moves closer to the world of spirit.
Yes, the eternal journey to that non-visible and ever elusive spiritual world that till this day I ask myself how have so many human beings deposited their entire existence in the desire to attain such a world without ever having a tangible proof that it could possibly and remotely exist. Yet, it is as everything else that is sought and looked for – even fought for – a nice delusion created at a mind level, embraced as a belief and defended as part of the religion of self that guards ‘spirituality’ as that untouchable preference within each human being’s life. Have a look at how people often say “respect my belief/ I am respectful of others’ beliefs” but what happens when such ‘respect’ becomes a blatant allowance of abuse and disregard toward this physical reality that is here, that we wake up to every single day and that we are clearly witnessing, is not getting any closer to god or some ineffable heaven-like scenario. We are only compounding the already existent hell on Earth and it seems that excuses like ‘this world is an illusion’ – ‘let go of this world’ are the fallacies backed up as part of spiritual dogmas and uplifted at the level of ‘divine truths’ only for the convenience of us, human beings that seek a way out of taking Self Responsibility for this world.
See, Self Responsibility would not have to be this ‘drag’ and ‘lousy’ type of consideration. It has become so because we weren’t initially born in a world where we all became aware of having to take responsibility for the consequences of our words, thoughts and actions. If we implement a living-reality based on Self Responsibility from birth, we will integrate it as a normal-aspect of our interaction within this world. Abuse and harm would diminish extensively as each one will be able to ‘think twice’ before doing, acting and speaking something that isn’t in accordance to what’s best for all – yet this can only be existent within a system that does consider everyone equally.
To see the world as an illusion and combined with altruistic motivation, bodhichitta and very great compassion for other living beings, produces a very pure and joyous view of the world. The conventional basis for this is that knowing the sufferings of others, wishing to care for them and knowing the impermanent nature of things and the inevitability therefore of all suffering, one then combines compassion with a view of the world as illusion, thus converting a grim situation into one of joy, hope and faith, as it is clear that all beings are our friends and always have been, and always will be.
Whenever you encounter these type of fallacies wherein something that is considering an actual physical and tangible reality of suffering, abuse and disregard of human beings, animals, plants/ the world in its entirety into a Mental Experience of self-interest based on ‘joy,’ bliss’ and ‘purity’ is then an immediate red flag to realize: I am being sold a nice experience based on actual physical negligence and abuse that I am accepting and allowing to exist as part of who I am in this world. However, who is REALLY willing to take the red pill and step out of the comfortable lies upon which we have built this social, economical and political structure that we are living in?
Idealists, romantics and religious people of all types tend very predominantly to view the world as having some spiritual element and not being utterly corrupted, nihilistic or material. They choose, indeed they need, to see a mental, spiritual and moral dimension to life – pervading and underlying the raw physical facts of existence given to us by our senses. They also embrace the idea that good will always triumph over evil and they tend to regard the stark facts of materialism with considerable horror. In order to live happily they need to believe there is a spiritual and good, kind backdrop to life and the universe. It is very comforting to believe that hope and joy are justified.
This paragraph describes who I was right before Desteni. I rejoiced in creating all forms of nice perspectives upon life, consciously and literally trying to make the ‘bad shit’ look ‘cool,’ while existing in a make-believe system of justification toward the abuse and general disregard we have perpetuated as species toward all life forms. Within seeking this ‘spiritual dimension of life’ we get lost and caught in these warm fuzzy thoughts that justify why suffering exist, why wars exist, why deliberate abuse exist, using statements like: ‘there is a god/ law/ all seeing eye that knows of it and knows what and why he/she/ it is doing.’ This I would have to repeat to myself whenever facing a reality that simply didn’t match an ideal of what a ‘peaceful world’ should be – problem: the inner self-created mental experience wasn’t in consonance with the reality I saw before my eyes. Plain indication of self deception at hand – yet I kept playing blind for a while.
Holding a view/ perspective on life that is supportive instead of promoting philosophical mindfucks
Saying that ‘the world is an illusion’ is an attempt to solve the primordial problem on ‘what is real/ what is reality’ and follow the laws of the least effort and ‘seeking/ following your greatest excitement’ to not have to face and care about the world/ reality without seeing that this world/ reality is as real as we have to eat, shit, drink and relate to others to continue existing in it. How come that we as humanity dared ourselves to side-view the most basic common sense in the name of joy, happiness, faith and hope? Easy, it’s nice to rejoice in the mind and neglect our responsibility within it all.
This ties into the spirit vs. matter point that I had previously discussed in a ‘raw’ way in terms of using the elemental polarity-relation that has created ‘good’ and ‘evil’ as we now know it. I’ve read that ‘this reality is an illusion’ countless times and the first aspect that I see is required to be debunked is the use of the term ‘illusion’ and how it has been a comfortable ideal-meaning to give to a physical-reality that is assessed at a mind-level, to not take into consideration the full ‘weight’ of it all upon ourselves.
We know that the mind is a system, it is limited within its abilities to perceive reality – yes, I repeat: limited to perceive reality – yet it IS reality what we are perceiving and living and interacting with; we are not seeing the actual totality that is Here, but that doesn’t mean that it is ‘an illusion’ at all. I’ll place Bernard Poolman’s words here because it would be the ideal definition toward ‘Illusion’: “Nothing is what it seems”
This phrase was given within the context of explaining the reality and events that we have experienced as our reality and how this process that we are walking is about Self Realization, which is something that has nothing to do with ‘spirituality’ but the eventual comprehension of how we all have created this world = how we are all responsible for what is here and having to face the space-time manifested consequences of our existence. ‘Nothing is what it seems’ doesn’t mean ‘it is not real’ – yet there is more than what meets the EYE, which is not in any way suggesting that ‘it’s not substantially here’ or that ‘nothing really matters,’ which is one of the common phrases coming from people that seek nice and beautiful experiences even if being aware that there are billions that have nothing to eat today.
What I see is how we have used words to separate ourselves from what is Here in all ways. I have shared in the past how I conceived language as the primordial form of cookie-cutting reality into specific shapes and forms eventually losing our own ground and perspective on such different shapes and forms stemming from the same cookie-dough = one and equal. It is within this point that we’ve gotten ‘lost in translation’ within the sense of believing that anything that we ‘point out’ in the form of a concept/idea encapsulated as a word is in separation of ourselves = this is the very first point that must be revisited to understand how Equality and Oneness has been side-viewed from the moment that we began singling out elements, things, people in separation of ourselves.
The abstraction of reality – if done in self interest – can result equal to the fabrication of weapons that will be able to justify the most hideous reality in the name of human supremacy over reality.
Thus saying that ‘This world/ reality is an illusion’ is equal to creating the greatest joint to neglect the world that we breathe in.
The mind became the data base with all the necessary nomenclature imposed onto this world for the sake of having power and control dubbed with ‘knowing.’ Once again, the human being as the all-knowing and ‘rational being’ that is here to conquer reality. The mind is the source and platform upon which such ‘rationality’ emerged as a form of supremacy that has become our current reality where the human has obliterated the life that was already here, unconditionally. What is this human world? A world where everything and everyone was regarded as separated from who we really are as one and equal = self as the totality that is here. Within ‘forgetting’ who we are, where we come from, what we have done within this world, we have continued to perpetuate this eternal idea of ‘evolution’ and ‘progress’ while continuing an invasion of a world that we are scavenging without ever taking into consideration that the beingness that exists here is one and equal as ourselves as well. This is then the story of human nature as self-destructive, self-abusive because of a single premise not being looked at from the very beginning: we are one and equal to everything and all that is here.
Isn’t it common sense that if this reality was an illusion we could then just step out of it at any given moment? Oops! got news for you: we can’t, that point was missed then by Buddhists and Berkeley and anyone else that supported this convenient idea of considering this reality as an illusion.
The anthropocentric religion
One of the points that have vexed me in the past years when having to read books about art, philosophy and religion is how it is all stemming from an anthropocentric perspective – yes as ‘obvious’ as it may sound, it is only now that we are able to read and get to know about the perspectives given by beings that we never thought would be equally aware of what is here. This is in fact a fascinating point that I have been realizing when listening to interviews recorded by Atlanteans and describing their world, their creations and how everything that they ‘created’ would eventually become a being/ entity with awareness as well – hell, that is common sense, how come we had missed that all along! I remember having externalized stuff like this when I was a little girl and telling people that maybe the door of the car would feel when being slammed or the grass when being stepped on – this was more obvious when plucking out the petals of a rose, yet no one seemed to care or deemed that I was a bit coo coo – I accepted the latter name and have remained as such in an ‘affectionate way’ within my family. lol Anyways, I kept this ‘belief’ because it only made sense, somehow.
Within this life-experience premise, getting to school and learning about the egotistical ways in which the human portrays ‘himself’ within this world is just proof of how a mind will always seek to impose itself onto reality without any regard to anything/ any other being that is equally existing within this world. Within this perception, what’s being accepted and neglected is the equal-right that anything/ any animal, any plant, any element of this earth has as part of this world equal and one to us, human beings. These are aspects that must be considered when we speak about Equality and Oneness. It is about creating a world that will not only consider the creation of a supportive system for human life, but for all beings equally. We can agree that it is in fact the human being the one that must take Self Responsibility after all the damage done in the name of this ‘Quest to conquer Earth’ without ever realizing the long term effects and consequences of our endless attempts to become ‘Gods’ in this reality. We’ve failed in our godliness and we are now aware that we missed the most vital principle: Equality as Life – giving to each other what is here as ourselves in Equality – no more and no less, no masters, no slaves.
Saying that this Reality is an Illusion within this context, is diminishing and almost squashing down with a single footstep the entire world that is actually providing us with all the necessary means to keep our mindfucks in place – I mean, how ludicrous! We feed ourselves to continue existing as mind robots that do not give a reverend fuck about this reality – and we even dare to say that ‘what is Here is an illusion’ just so that we don’t have to ponder too much about the problems and obvious consequences for all of the abuse and misuse of what is here to create our bubble-gum world where sex and money move mountains, keeping the shackles in place for everything and everyone – this is All a self-created prison. Unfortunately, we have abused others in such mindfuck as well, and by ‘others’ I mean the animal kingdom, nature as every single particle that is also here, sharing the same time and space that we continue scavenging and that we will probably only stop once that the consequences are undeniable and most likely, unbearable.
From any point of regret of what has been done, from any form of projected embarrassment toward anyone that is and could still utter such statements in the name of ‘joy’ and ‘bliss’ – we are able to Forgive ourselves. There is no other way that I could see we could correct our stance toward everything and everyone in this world.
The religion of ‘mankind’ has then been that of believing ourselves to be the ‘superior species’ that ‘know it all’ and can ‘resolve it all’ with nice catchy phrases dubbed ‘wisdom’ to place them within an equally airy-fairy hierarchical system of values as ‘beliefs’ that have separated ourselves from what is HERE as Life, and created/manifested into/ as the current monetary system that is the actual ‘ruler’ within this reality. We’ve created our own monster and we’ve ostracized ourselves from our own reality through our own creation. We judge the ‘creators’ of this reality and judged them as ‘stupid’ for having locked themselves out of their own creation: we are doing exactly the same within this current monetary system, we have neglected ourselves as Life within our fantabulous creation of ‘money’ and ‘wealth’ as power over this existence.
I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel ashamed for being a human being that is part of the human race and that has neglected the very air, water, sun, earth that holds us and that allows us to continue existing, while disregarding that everything that is here I have separated myself from within and through a monetary system that is NOT here as the creation of equal-support for all and within this
I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to become a human being that has supported the separation of ourselves as life, as everything that is here due to/ because of implementing a system that has only confirmed and supported our delusions of grandeur as ‘superior species’ within this Earth, without realizing that this is only a mind valuing itself according to how it can perceive itself as the only beings with such ‘instrument for reasoning’ and within this, neglecting and not even considering that there could be other forms of awareness without having to be existing as a human being to do so.
I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself as a human being to impose my views, my perspective, my ‘philosophy’ on top of what is here as reality, imposing within this the mind’s reign upon the physical reality that is here, unconditionally, tangible, reliable and consistent which is everything that the mind is not.
I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to trust a mind instead of relying on the actual visible and undeniable facts that this physical reality reveal of who we really are as beings that breathe, eat, shit, relate, reproduce and die as organisms that live here within a certain cycle with a beginning and an end – within this
I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to as a human being, believe that the purpose and mission of the human being within this world had to be of some type of ‘spiritual nature’ that could only confirm the self-created and programmed supremacy of the mind over matter, the ‘spirit’ as the mind creation over the reality that is here, as what is tangible, as what we breath, eat, shit and sustain ourselves with.
I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to ever allow myself to think or indulge into thoughts about this reality being an illusion, without ever realizing that I could only indulge into these thoughts because of not wanting to take Self Responsibility for this world, which I as a human being, have used and abused in the name of creating my ‘realm’ within an attempt to ‘conquer the Earth’ stemming from a delusional idea of such thing being possible in this reality as a fact. We can only abuse another in an attempt to create such supremacy that can only stem from who we are as the mind – not in consideration of who we are as one and equal.
Who we are as physical beings, as part of this world and reality cannot possibly be more than or less than what and who we already are as the entirety that is HERE as a whole.
“The void is not the void because there’s nothing to be empty of” – I’ve recalled this quote several times through my blogs and it’s possibly one of the Zen Buddhism type of quotes that allowed me to grasp what it is that makes any ‘desire’ and ‘longing’ such a useless mind-fuck to keep us well entertained and diverted from looking at the reality that is here, that we are absolutely abusing and neglecting while getting ourselves high on ideas of us not being this world, us not being ‘real’, our bodies being only ‘vessels’ and essentially only justifying any form of abuse toward each other while seeking joy, bliss, love, peace, drugs and rock & roll.
Only standing within this anthropocentric perspective of this reality, can we dub this world as ‘an illusion.’ We are now facing the consequences of the continued abuse to the extent of getting to a point of no return for life to continue in this world. I have to go as far as saying that only human beings have created theories, ideas, perceptions, axioms, hypothesis and endless philosophies in an attempt to describe, grasp and have a hold on what is here. The starting point of knowledge is that of control and power over this reality, this physical world that is here. And here I add one of my favorite Bernard Poolman quotes: “Knowledge will never be Life.” Such a simple statement shook my reality to the extent that I had to walk a process to see what was knowledge in fact and how it is that I had placed value and worth upon myself as knowledge. We as species have neglected reality in an attempt to be gods. Who/what created any idea of inferior/ superior but ourselves in our mind – it is but a program, a single structure of information that has served as an actual weapon to exterminate any ability to live and understand this reality from a common-sensical perspective which would have to be based on what is tangible, physical, constantly able to be verified and confirmed by all participants in this world.
The very manipulation, the very creation of something and someone – in terms of becoming parents – in separation of ourselves has become nothing else but a power-game, a failed attempt to be ‘gods’ and ‘creators,’ neglecting the most basic facts: anything we name, anything we create, we have to take Self Responsibility for.
Another Bernard Poolman quote: “If you create something, you have to give it responsibility as well” – that’s part of the fundamental principles to be applied and lived by every single human being in this world – I emphasize the human aspect and perspective as this is what I currently am aware of and what I see/recognize is the primary reason of why we are facing a reality that is busy collapsing = it is our creation collapsing as the entirety of the mind-empire that we’ve built like castles in the air with no foundation whatsoever on LIFE.
Everything that surrounds me that has been shaped and formed and given name is tainted by the human intellect, it is part of the prison we’ve built in separation of ourselves. Why? To create ourselves as ‘masters’ of the world. The Earth gives everything we require to live unconditionally, we have done the exact opposite and formed a system that can only benefit some to live in the type of heaven promulgated by religions, yet having the vast majority being locked out of this magnificent creation due/to and because of Money.
Money is a mental system. It is the actual Illusion that has become the most convenient lie of them all for some. We all have accepted it as real. The more I see it in my pocket the more it becomes surreal that we still use this as a form of obtaining that which should be given as part of being in this world (no more papers required, thank you.)
Money has been created for the sole purpose of abusing, imposing and sucking dry this reality in an attempt to maintain the human being as the ‘supreme being’ in a reality that is then called an ‘illusion’ to remain at ease and with a false sense of peace that results as a comfortable Lie that we have all bought in the name of our personal interests, our personal goals and lifestyles that we accepted as how reality is, how humanity functions, how ‘human nature’ dictates our reality.
Nice comfortable Lies
Thus it can be argued that Berkeley – and the Mahayanists – simply and neatly sidestep and resolve this huge problem by proposing a theory that the whole world is an effective illusion upon our senses, and that the only reality is an entirely spiritual one. In Berkeley’s case, he argues that it is a part of the mind of God and is thus loved by God, seen by God and is part of Him, part of the fabric of his Being. This is a very comforting viewpoint for the Deist.
This statement says it all. What are we exactly complying to when saying ‘reality is entirely spiritual’? It is saying: ‘Neglect this ‘physical reality’/ this current world, do not even bother to see what’s going on, what’s wrong or what must be changed and corrected because: it’s not even real anyways!’ This is a key quote because it contains the ‘magic words’ to make it acceptable within human’s gullibility when it comes to emotions/ feelings (which we know are programs and knowledge constructed to generate fluffy energies of being alright without actually being so.)
The magic word is ‘Love’ – by saying that this reality is God’s creation and it is loved, people that are believing in a God feel ‘honored’ and stupefied enough to never question why such ‘godly creation’ reflected our very own mind/ human nature allowing destruction and starvation that could have easily gotten us to get some type of realization about there being something inherently wrong within this reality. Once blinded by the light, it takes time to recover the ability to see what is really HERE. Love is then that glue that has kept the chains of enslavement tight and wrought into a nice presentation that we all bought into in one way or another – both positive and negative aspects are equally created at a mind level, hence we can’t deny that our participation in this.
“An advantage of the view of the world as an illusion is that we become genuinely fearless and relaxed in our life, accepting things as they are, people as they are and delighting in everything that comes along just as it is something which was meant to happen and which certainly contains something for us of value and benefit. We behave as if we are in a dream and as if all events are happenings within a dream.[…] It also enables one to be joyous and to be a friend of everyone. It enables us to develop greater hope and faith in ourselves, others and the world at large. It is unthinkable to even consider a life or world without these qualities of hope, joy and faith. Taken together all these advantages also form a basis for deeper spiritual insights and progress. They form a basis of relaxation and deep calm within one’s life, precisely because of the love, joy and contentment which the view engenders within us”
If ‘reality is an illusion’ how come that the very mind that thinks and formulates this excuse is not then seen as part of the illusion itself? – hence discarding itself out by mere inference of the origin being an illusion as well – I mean, this is just an attempt to equalize the mindfuck that is currently being promoted in the name of what we just read above: joy, hope, faith, relaxation, calm and love – we’ve become our-slaves to the creation and perpetuation of ‘nice feelings’ in an attempt to create some form of ‘support’ for a ‘deeper spiritual process’ which is then again the non-tangible realm where entire intergalactic battles could take place without a single physical mortal being able to confirm it.
Art has contributed to this creation of the perfect illusion of reality. From my own experience any time I tried to equate a drawing to reality would only result in frustration for not getting it the right way – we like art because of the illusion it represents of reality – when there is no light all shapes and forms disappear – yes – but a starving child remains a starving child during daylight or night time. How narrow minded have we become the moment that we only consider ‘life’ as ‘ourselves’ and how we live it/ perceive it and within that, dare to publish such points as ‘truths’ that many others that were also viewing the world from the perspective of me-myself-and-I then resonate with and follow, creating the ‘masters’ and ‘slaves’ that seek such grandeur in an attempt to control reality and dare to call it ‘pursuit of happiness.’
Why Bother?
How is reality any different from a dream?’ And ‘what difference does it make if they are the same?’ It was not possible for me to see any substantial difference between them, thus why bother to pretend that there is a difference? So one can confidently treat the world as if it IS an illusion and use that as a basis for living one’s life. That shows contempt not for the world itself, but for the materialist paradigm, maybe!
‘Why bother?’ Key phrase of the ultimate abdication of self responsibility upon this world and reality. A more colloquial translation would be ‘fuck it’ / ‘who gives fuck’/ ‘I don’t give a fuck.’ What a convenient phrase to brainwash oneself into a pervasive negligence: “So one can confidently treat the world as if it IS an illusion and use that as a basis for living one’s life.” We can see how the person that wrote this is inherently wanting to ‘oppose’ the materialistic perspective of reality which instead of remaining as common sense, became just another antithesis of spirituality without going any further than denying the postulates presented by spirituality.
It’s all here:
So to sum up, I think to entertain and thoroughly consider the idea that the world is an illusion is a surprisingly powerful and profound technique which can lead to real spiritual insights and lasting joy and delight both with oneself and with the world.
If the world is not real then not much that happens in it is of any great interest, worth or consequence –
See, there are internal paradoxes in all of this type of ‘views’ even when seeing it from a rational and logical human perspective based on how knowledge is built
What is supposed to be the ‘Illusion’ then?
And now, for the cherry on the top to give this entire unacceptable perorate full-mindfuck-circle
The world IS essentially an illusion as that is precisely how it is perceived by the mind of an enlightened being, a Buddha. Thus it can be argued that through cultivating the view of the world as like a dream or illusion, prepares us for the final stages of enlightenment, for the attainment of the view of a Buddha.
The advantages of believing in the world as non-physical or as an illusion and thus essentially spiritual, are very comforting and indicate a desire to believe in the essential and pervasive ‘goodness’ of humankind and the world and universe we occupy. Such a view might be difficult to maintain in the light of our frequent battering by bad and unpleasant events that befall folks all the time. These events shake our faith, our hope and our joy and tend to negate our spiritual paradigm. It is similar when trying to love everybody and to regard them all as friends and kind folk when they go and act in an unkind or unfriendly way. The disadvantage for a spiritual person of believing the world to be only physical, is that it appears like a form of mindless nihilism which is unbearably depressing. Such a view makes life most definitely NOT worth living for the romantic idealists and spiritual persons. If materialism were true, such folks would be permanently in a state of profound despair.
I can call myself a human being that lives by the physical laws wherein if I don’t breathe, eat, shit, drink, sleep and exist in a network of relationships, I would not be able to exist. Is this ‘materialism’? I call it realism without placing emphasis on the ‘ism’ but keeping it close to the ground as the Earth that we eat from and where we all will end up lying once dead. I see this reality is Real for all that it takes and I am in no way in a ‘profound despair’ anymore- even though I was before. I have forgiven myself, I am standing up to never again succumb to neglect my world and reality in fluffy thoughts and feelings that are actually damaging others and our sense of what living actually is.
The illusion is placing value and worth to the words that have no physical correlation to what is here as one and equal. This illusion is what must be stopped before it becomes an actual reality that we can later only regret about.
We’re still here, walking a process to establish what the real world is once we are fully here, fully equal as Life. Be part of this as well.
“It is the mind that labels this physical world as illusion, the physical is real, the mind is just that -a maker of illusion.” @RebeccaDalmas
“La Ilusión de este mundo es nuestra realidad” – 2008
Educate yourself with a never before told reality on this existence beginning at an atomic level The Psychology of The Atom
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