Could the whole world be just an illusion????

Originally posted by CaptainMooPoo
the whole world is just an illusion so then what would that mean? That we dont really exist. That this is all just a matrix like thing. You're not really making a lot of sense buddy. Cheerio, and stuff.

For one, it's not from The Matrix. Not originally. It's a Buddhist concept, which was pirated by the makers of The Matrix. And it makes perfect sense - to me, anyway.

It seems everyone is misunderstanding the meaning of the word "illusion". This is how the concept of "the Great Illusion" was taught to me:

Form is emptiness; and emptiness is form.

Many people will find this line puzzling. They are equally bewildered by basic Buddhist teachings such as that the phenomenal world is an illusion, and ultimate reality is tranquil and undifferentiated. Interestingly, modern science provides a clear explanation for this Buddhist teaching.

In our ordinary consciousness, an opponent is real. If he or she attacks you and if you fail to defend yourself there is no illusion about your being hit. But suppose we look at the same situation from the very high level of consciousness of an enlightened being like a Buddha, or a Bodhisattva who sees reality as it is ultimately is and not as it is grossly modified by a set of conditions. You may not have reached the level of a Bodhisattva, but here is where modern science can help us. Suppose you look through a gigantic, super-powerful microscope. What would you see? Your opponent would have disappeared! What you thought was the form of a person would turn out to be almost emptiness; you would see patterns of subatomic particles as far apart as specks of stars in outer space. If you looked at yourself you would be equally astonished; your body too would have disappeared! If the microscope were more powerful, like the wisdom-eye of a Bodhisattva, you would realize that the so-called subatomic particles are actually not particules; they are concentrations of energy without any definite boundary.

You would suddenly be awakened to the great cosmic truth that there is no boundary separating one subatomic particle from another, there is also no boundary separating you from your opponent or anything else. In other words, the whole Universe is actually a continuous spread of energy or consciousness, without any differentiation. You would be awakened to the greatest truth of all - the discovery that great masters of all religions and mystical disciplines have made - that the physical body in which, owing to your ignorance, you have imprisoned yourself, is an illusion, and that your personal mind is actually the Universal Mind. This feeling of liberation gives us tremendous calm and blessedness. The ecstatic exclamations of great masters such as "I dissolve myself in the infinite grace of God", "There is no difference between the Cosmos and me", "My own nature is the Buddha nature", or even "The Father and I are one" become meaningful.

This is Zen, which in this context means a glimpse of cosmic reality in its transcendental aspect, and which is called "wu" in Chinese and "kensho" or "satori" in Japanese, and is best translated as "awakening" in English. An awakening is not enlightenment; it is nevertheless a confirmation that you are on the way to enlightenment if you persist in your cultivation.


Perhaps this will get the idea across, though this isn't the entirety of the lesson. I will elaborate more, if necessary.

[Edited on 3-2-2004 by LOBO]

Two books I've read that I recommend are "The Self-Aware Universe" by Amit Goswamiand and "Radical Nature" by Christian de Quincey.

twm.co.nz...

www.invisiblecitiespress.com...

I think the consciousness/energy dance that creates reality could be classified as an "illusion" but what's the illusion: the imagination that created the material world or the material world that created the imagination?

Ah, thank god for Buddhism...ooops thank "nothing" for "everything"!

Finally I had a Siegfried and Roy joke somewhere in here and I can't seem to get it out...cat's got my tongue you could say. (Get better Roy...I'm coming to Vegas soon baby!)

August 2003 issue

PHYSICS

Information in the Holographic Universe
Theoretical results about black holes suggest that the universe could be like a gigantic hologram

www.sciam.com...

Could the whole world be an illusion???? Imean how could i know if u r real or just a set-up illusion??? I've been thinking a lot about that

Go, Jump of a bridge, and you will figure out your answer.

Or are we all just experiencing our own subjective reality?

Deep

I rather NOT

if you listen and believe in religion it is an illusion! does everyone say when you die you go here, there, so this must be an illusion! cause the real world is after you die!

I often have the feeling I am all there is and everything else is an illusion. It's only a fleeting thought but an entirely unwelcome one.

maybe... your brain subconciously creates a 'reality', creating every aspect of our lives, maybe we could control it? Perhaps everyone you've met, everything you've see was created by...you. Maybe you're hooked up to a machine inorder to test your true character, a simple test, when you die you'll 'wake up' and istantly you'll know if you passed or not, maybe passing is...heaven...

thoughts?

Holographic paradigm. All I can say is wow! Thanks for the link.

[Edited on 8-2-2004 by outsider]

I tried walking on water and sank.