Illusion

Illusion (Skt. माया, Maya, Not That) is that which appears.

It is that aspect of the Existence which does not exist independently on its own, but merely appears to be there.

All of the Experience is an illusion.

All that is false is the illusion.

What Appears?

That is an obvious question. What is it that appears? From where are these illusory appearances coming from?

Existence appears to itself as illusory Experience. There is nothing else apart from it.

Names and Forms

Illusion appears as names and forms. Form is a perceptual experience, and name is a linguistic experience. Both are created in the memory.

So we roughly say that the illusion is created by the mind. Or we can say that all that appears is my own creation (The I is placed in the position of the mind, or mental processes here.). Or we can say that all Experience is mind created. Or all that is perceived is mind. Remember that these statements are more or less poetic, and not very accurate, but they convey this understanding.

The images that appear are the forms. Names are associations with images. They are the symbols that get associated with the forms in the memory. There is nothing else out there. There is no other Experience.

Illusion and Simulation

The word simulation (Latin simulātiōnem, Imitation or Similarity) means that which is false but has a true counterpart. It looks real, behaves as real, but is only a copy of the real thing. Well known examples are - scientific models, or computer simulations of machines or processes in biology, computer games where the landscape, characters, weapons etc. are made to closely resemble the real thing.

A distinction must be made between the illusion and the simulation because the illusion has no real counterpart whatsoever. Illusion is completely made up, there is nothing that is being represented by the illusion.

One can ask - if the world is an illusion, what is it that is appearing as this world? Or what is the reality of the world then? And the answer is - nothing. That which appears is not an imitation or representation of anything which is real.

So while the simulation has a purpose, is not totally fake (e.g. the computer game has hardware, electrical signals etc. as its reality), and is useful, the illusion is totally false, has no process behind it, and it is totally useless or purposeless.

One can say that the mind creates a model of the objects or the body and the world in order to survive. But the whole survival business is also an illusory activity. Nothing is trying to survive. There is no "we", no organisms.

The fallacy here is that there is a "different kind" of reality that is appearing as an Experience. This is not true. There is no way to establish it.

Examples of Illusions

• Anything that can be experienced via senses, which means all the physical objects, the world, the universe etc.
• Trees and animals.
• People
• Body
• Sensations of the body
• Emotions and feelings
• Thoughts
• Imagination
• Dreams
• Memories
• The Causal Body
• The Greater Memory
• The Universal Memory

Yes, all your actions, your mother and father, your son and daughter, your friends and enemies, everything that happens in the world, history, present and future is all an illusion.

All knowledge of the illusion is an illusion. So science, economics, politics, religions etc. are all good examples of illusion.

The so called fundamental entities are only mental concepts, such as - space, time, direction, location, duration, quantity etc. All are illusory.

All gods and goddesses, metaphysical beings, other worldly phenomena etc. are all illusory.

Change

Illusion or the Experience is always dynamic. It changes. However its substrate never changes.

For example the gold ornaments can assume many forms, but gold remains as it is. So the ring, the necklace and bangle is only a name-form, i.e. illusory, and their reality is the gold, since it is the only one that remains unchanging while assuming various forms. Gold is the essence, not the name-form.

Similarly clay can take many shapes - pots, idols, toys, bricks, but the clay remains as the essential reality of these changing name-forms.

The ornaments or clay objects do not have a separate independent existence apart from the gold or clay. Hence they are illusory. They are false. The unchanging aspect is the only truth.

All that changes is false. All experience changes, so it is false. Its substrate is the Experiencer, it never changes, so it is the only truth.

See the article on Criteria for Truth for more discussion.

Cause of the Illusion

Illusion is acausal. Which means it has no cause.

It is not accurate to say that the Existence "creates" the illusion. Or that the Experiencer produces the illusion. The Experiencer does nothing, it is a silent witness, and the Existence is nothing but the Experiencer, as its other aspect, the Experience is merely an appearance. Appearances do not create themselves.

So we face a difficultly here, our intellect stops here. That which can create, does not create, and that which is created cannot create itself.

The only way out of this difficulty is that we drop the concept of creation. This concept is nothing but ignorance. There is no such thing as creation when applied to the Existence etc. The concept of creation or cause or creator is invalid or not applicable to the Existence or illusion.

Illusion is nothing but the Experience, and since the Experience has no cause, illusion has no cause.

However, we can make models of the illusion to explain how it is being manifested. So there can be an answer to the "How" question, but there is no answer for the "Why" question.

Transactional Reality

Or the relative truth is a concessional arrangement where we consider the illusion as true. This is highly useful for survival.

So if you wish to survive, your house, your food and your relatives are all true. When you wish to know and wish to get rid of your ignorance they are all false.

The job of a seeker becomes to rise from the transactional reality to the ultimate reality.