ILLUSION

Ever noticed how much illusion is around you?

Take something simple, like a photograph in a newspaper. It looks like a person, to be sure, but when you look closely at it, the person disappears into a sea of variously shaded dots. What looks like an entity is nothing more than an arrangement of dots.

Another example is the rising and setting of the sun. We of course know (assuming that we made it through the third grade) that it is not rising or setting; the earth is turning and making it look that way. For that matter, the fact that the earth appears to be stationary is also an illusion.

One of the most fascinating illusions is that of our very selves, our so-called identities, an illusion made of words. We get so wrapped up in it, and keep talking about it so much, saying I and me and you and him and her so much that it is no wonder we completely forget (or perhaps overlook) the fact that it is no more real than the photograph made up of a bunch of dots.

Many people, in fact most people, do not believe that they are an illusion, but believe instead (and most undeniably) that they are very real, and just might go on being those real selves (whatever they are) forever. They talk about immortal souls and such. It doesn't seem to matter to them that they can never quite put their finger on exactly what that self is. They grow so attached to it (at least its idea) that they feel somehow compelled to believe in it.

But people are just a bunch of dots arranged in a field of space in much the same way that a photograph on a piece of paper is. The dots that people are constructed of are atoms and molecules and, on a deeper level, quanta.

From one perspective, it is very empowering to see ourselves for what we really are. Getting caught up in the illusion of a perceived self can be a real bummer, especially when it comes time to die and let go of that self.

If you truly believe in it (the personal self or ego), to the point of worshipping it (which is what many people in the West do), death can be a frightful thing. But if you are able to see that you were never here in the first place, it's a walk in the park.

It doesn't matter that you die, because you were never here.

You were just an illusion, just like the photograph in the newspaper, which looked like it was an image of a real person, but upon close inspection turned out to be nothing but a collection of dots. And you upon close inspection will turn out to be a swarm of atoms and quanta, so complex and entangled that it gave the very powerful impression that it was indeed that which it appeared to be. But in the end it turned out that it only appeared that way.