Reality and Illusion by Wim

[Guest guest]

Underneath the differences that the two of us have in defining

reality, illusion and what " happening " actually means, I do understand

what you are saying clearly though.

 

What differs then are our definitions of " happening " , " reality " and

" illusion " . For now I think I will touch on " happening " only obliquely

in this response and about the assumption that 'scriptures of old'

call what is commonly identified as the 'world of reality' that it is

actually an ephemeral world of illusion, I have written enough already

that I find that a flawed understanding.

 

I want to show here more conclusively though that

(1) illusion is NOT the opposite of reality

(2) illusion is not the nature of what we commonly call reality

(3) I cannot agree that whatever is happening is not even happening

and thus even less then illusion.

 

To do that I will attempt to define illusion as a 'tricking' handling

of reality - either playfully or seriously - that makes reality only

seem different from what it is in the eyes of a 'befuddled' onlooker

and that behind the different seeming appearances that reality can be

made to look like, that reality can in fact not be 'fiddled with' at

all but only be seen as though it has been 'fiddled' with. :-)

 

This definition of illusion in principle contains behavioral (tricking

and being tricked) and handling (manipulation and maneuvering) aspects

in the description of the dynamics of its application – 'application'

of course being a manipulation or operation that is done to or with

something else.

 

In principle there is nothing adverse about or with the application of

illusion when it is entertaining a 'p l a y' of illusion. As such it

almost invariably sets the one on whom the benevolent trickery is

played, free. Magicians, clowns, illusionists and yes... koan masters

have created many a freeing situation, sometimes with long range and

ever-lasting life changing repercussions.

 

In my definition then, illusion is the application of sense and mind

affecting acts of which the intention is confusion and obfuscation

with the use of a series of tricking manipulations that initially

affects perception and eventually confounds the mind of the observer

of the illusion.

 

Over time, the original invention of illusion (see (a) below)  - like

any invention - developed adverse side effects according to its way of

application. Like any 'tool' it can be used inappropriately and

against its originally intended purposes (see (b) below).

 

Illusion was originally supposed to be transparent, one knew one was

fooled and in a surprised manner happy about 'being taken' and 'taking

something away from it', having learned something about perspective

and perception.

Over time though, it was learned that 'fooled ones' could be caused to

believe not having been fooled at all. Thus they could be forced to

'play' a subjected role in the hand of a manipulator or trickster.

'Being taken' literally started to mean 'being taken', that way having

become the victim of foolery rather than the victor over it, losing

the power to truly perceive and losing a clear perspective.

 

Illusion:

(a) On the one hand, when it is playfully and entertainingly applied

or performed and when it surprisingly and humorously plays with

'props' of reality and an audience of not necessarily participating

'watchers' - an audience consisting of 'onlookers' who can freely

leave the 'theater of operation' - it is bona fide. It entertains

happily and also... it tends to increase the perceptive abilities of

the observers who will leave freer, happier, more observant and

possibly even more independent because of it.

(b) On the other hand, when the illusive acts are not playfully

performed but rather seriously acted out upon an audience (usually

starting with a single person and later expanding to more people,

always in a controlled or a gradually increasing controlled

environment) when the sense confusing and mind obfuscating acts are

not performed playfully but instead of 'enter-taining' aim to

'main-tain' an  audience in the grip of a confused mental state and

when the 'watchers' unbeknownst to themselves actually also act as

props (in the eyes of non-participating onlookers from the outside),

and when such subjected 'watchers' cannot freely leave the 'theater of

operation', then such application of illusion is mala fide. It has

then affected perception and understanding of the 'taken' observer

deceptively, a subject held-captive who eventually is not an

independent observer anymore but has lost his or her freedom and

eventually finds him or herself not at all happily surprised and

surely not free.

 

Such (b) is the mala fide illusion of pseudo-life that the Buddha

identified as suffering and saw in the lives generally lived by

(most?) all people he encountered.

 

Illusion then is a play round-and-about-reality that can only

seemingly make reality look different from what it is:

(a) in one mode able to make the onlooker more aware,

(b) in the other mode much less so and eventually not at all.

 

Bona fide as well as magic or illusion of ill-intent was something

that the greater India and Tibet of old (See Milarepa's ill as well as

well intended caprioles.) 'entertained' and what its population was

either 'fond of' in merriment or 'lost in' while in the thralls of

suffering dependency and abjection.

 

The malintent version of illusion, usually in the form of " If you do

this..., then I'll promise you that... " (which promises by the way are

usually only summarily fulfilled in an illusive though seemingly real

manner) became being used by manipulators worldwide to have others do

their bidding as subjects.

 

This malintentive manipulative trickery is exercised:

(1) large scale by demagogues leading 'their' people astray either

religiously or secularly,

(2) by too many small time patriarchs ('pater familias') and

matriarchs often following ancestral lines into future perpetuity,

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Pater+familias

(3) by small scale power mongers, be it male or female, in settings

that can be communal, peer group like, familial, parental or a sibling

environment.

 

Those, who almost from the beginning of human history endeavored to

take on the re-enfranchisement of their fellow human beings who had

become dis-enfranchised through suppression, repression and depression

in as many levels of intensity as the number of humans suffering,

brought together

(1) the notion of suffering and

(2) the notion of the illusive aspects in the disempowering maneuvers

by the instigators of dependency.

 

That those who suffered and who in their suffering knew no other way

of being than what they experienced in their suffering, became

confused and understood mistakenly that their 'liberators' said that

their life was based on illusion and that life is illusion, is

understandable. Many came to understand 'reality to be illusion' (the

two meanings of the Sanskrit term 'maya') and that the sages meant

that " It did not even happen " , especially not when compared to the

absolute existence or essence of some superior being or some superior

way of being.

 

That flawed misunderstanding by those who suffer in life even prolongs

the remote control hold of their captors (often even ancient deified

ones) in preventing them to understand the dynamics that brought about

their captivity inside the illusive stronghold of that what they are

subjected to and forced to believe as being true.

 

Illusion then is not the opposite of reality, it attempts to

conceptionally and seemingly 'conceivably' (with the use of confused

senses that do not perceive properly because of intentional external

befuddlement) change reality by what is done round-and-about it, the

fiddling only seems to change reality but does not and can not change it.

 

Whereas illusion is a seemingly apparent application to or an

operation on reality, making it appear different from what it really

is, reality is not an application of anything at all, reality IS and

we then, when reality is not fiddled with and we not befuddled, live

reality in a realized dynamic state of being.

Wim