Illusions: Outside Inner Space

As a man thinketh, so is he.

-- Proverbs 23:7

I listened to a Tibetan Lama speak in Berkeley several years ago. Something he said stuck with me:

"Life is a dream.  If you're not enjoying your life, dream a new dream."

He spoke through an interpreter, so I wasn't sure if I should take the translation literally.  He seemed to suggest that we were not only living a dream, but that we could control it.

This man desired to live in pure consciousness without the confines of the physical universe.  He referred to the physical world as a "stain" on his dream.  Such a concept intrigued me.  I could imagine how he might be able to freely change his dream, but the physical world would be less malleable - a stain that persisted throughout his changing dreams.  He taught that the physical world is impure -- as is anything that has a beginning and an end.  Consciousness is pure, in contrast, because it has always existed and always will. There is a general sense in Buddhist philosophy that God is universal consciousness that we are all part of and that the physical world is far less interesting as it is impermanent.

The spheres are the same size

The dream, our plane of illusion, is described within various traditions.  The Sanskrit word is Maya -- translated generally as "not that."  As we examine the illusion, it's easy to see that it is self-generated.  It's  largely an output of ego, perspective, perception and time.  Since it's self-generated, we are able to control it, for example, by simply changing our perspective or our attitude.  We can get very good at controlling the illusion if we simply maintain awareness of what our minds tell us and learn to shift it.  

However, that damned stain -- the physical world -- must be accounted for, as well, and it is often more difficult to manage.  We've changed the channel on our illusion, but the physical world hasn't budged and our embodied consciousness keeps bumping into it.   The rational mind sees the hard facts of the physical universe and spends much of its time trying to shape it. 

The illusion is structured such that it might even be defined in mathematical terms as something that might look like:

                                  Integral I  dt
 Sentient Illusion  =   -------------------

                                Slow Constant

where,

Sentient Illusion = illusion within the sentient context - the modeling of our environment from sensory input
I = the "I" experiences (ego, perspective, perception, expectations, etc.),
t = absolute value of present time - time where our thoughts are at the moment of illusion,
and the Slow Constant = the realized density of physical world

The Sentient Illusion is the component of the illusion we experience through sentient awareness.  There are others. There are the remarkable subtle illusions that hide in the subconscious and the collective unconscious.  There's also the Grand Illusion that is probably more accurately described as a veil.  Some say that everything we experience is an illusion, to such an extent that we are living within a holographic matrix that has no true form.  While outside the scope of this examination, I hope to address these ideas soon.

Taking any of the component functions to zero reduces the Sentient Illusion -- taking them all to zero, eliminates the Sentient Illusion and brings us to an enlightened state.  Enlightened awareness transcends ego, perspective, perception, or time beyond the present.

The primary point is that most of us experience the physical realm as a multifaceted illusion of ego, perspective, perception, time and probably other dimensions.  It can become very complex because things like ego, perspective, and perception are inter-dependant.  It becomes even more complex when we take ourselves out of isolation and account for the fact that we are dealing not only with our own illusions, but the illusions of everyone with whom we interact.

The Slow Constant is not a true constant.  The physical world is changing, but at a rate so much slower than consciousness that it appears somewhat constant to our perception.  It's that damned stain, again!  Fortunately, for those who desire pure consciousness, it's less permanent.

We can see beyond illusions, dissolve them, manifest them.  We can manage them to make ourselves happier, for example, as the lama suggested.  As such, "pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional" depending upon our perspectives, perceptions, etc.  Otherwise, the illusions confuse us and create misunderstandings and disharmony.  Without a view of true nature, nearly everything we encounter is altered by illusion.  What we experience reflects our internal frame of reference.

Consider communications, for example.  How much difference exists between what is said by one and what is heard by another?  This is a big one!  Our state of mind relies on resonance with another's state in order for any coherence of thought transfer to exist.

We are what we think.  

All that we are arises with our thoughts. 

With our thoughts we make the world.

                                     -- The Dhammapada (Buddha)