What Do They Mean, "Life Is Just an Illusion?"

Most of us go through our entire lives believing that everything we see in front of us is solid, is real. We never question the nature of the universe or the validity of our senses. Do we even know that there is more to life than what we perceive with the five senses? Most of us would have to answer this question with a “no”. Do we really know what we are looking at each day? What we are touching, feeling, smelling, hearing?

We are all accustomed to and used to the idea that the universe is solid and real. We touch, smell, taste, see and hear things constantly, for this is how we perceive our universe isn’t it? According to our five senses, everything we come into contact with is just as real as we are. To most people, if you can’t experience it with these five senses it does not exist.

This is where it gets interesting, and where we either get confused or lose interest. What we perceive with these five senses, in reality, is only but a small portion of all that exists. Additionally, what we touch, smell, taste, see and hear, i.e. what we sense, is not actually real; as nothing sensed is real. All motion is a simulation, it is an illusion. All we perceive with our senses is motion, motion of light. Motion is not real, although it simulates that which is real.

If this is the case, then what is real? The answer is quite simple, stillness. Stillness of what you might ask? It is none other than Light. Walter Russell, in his timeless classic, The Secret of Light, explains, “Light cannot be seen; it can only be known. Light is still. The sense of sight cannot respond to stillness. That which the eyes ‘feel’ and believe to be light is but wave motion simulating the idea if Light.

When man sees the light of the sun he believes that he is actually seeing the light when the nerves of his eyes are but ‘feeling’ the intense, rapid, shortwave vibrations of the kind of wave motion which he senses as incandescence. Man likewise cannot see darkness. The nerves of his eyes which sense motion slow down to a rate of vibration which he can no longer ‘feel’.”

In layman’s terms, what we see as light is not actually real light; it is but simulated light as an extension of the real Light. It is the same with matter, as matter is but simulated light, it is not the Light itself. The physical universe, where we are currently, is composed of simulated light only, in the form of motion. Motion can only sense motion, it cannot sense stillness. In other words, our five senses can only perceive motion (illusion), and not stillness (reality). This is why Jesus, as recorded in the Bible, said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” Why did he say this? Quite simply, because it is impossible to judge accurately with the senses, as the senses do not perceive that which is accurate, i.e. that which is real, in the first place.

Walter Russell adds further in his book thus mentioned, “Perhaps the confusion which attends this idea would be lessened if we classify everything concerning the spiritual universe, such as life, intelligence, truth, power, knowledge and balance as being the ONE LIGHT of KNOWING, and everything concerning matter and motion as being the TWO SIMULATED LIGHTS of thinking.” Put simply, we cannot know anything real through thinking, as thinking only perceives motion, which is illusion. It is like a mirage. The mirage reflects the idea of that something, although it is not that something.

As summarised by Russell, “The light which we think we see is but motion. We do not see light. We FEEL the wave vibrations set up by the motion which simulates light, but the motion of electric waves which simulate light is not that which it simulates.” This is what it means that life is just an illusion. It is not life itself that is an illusion, but what we think we perceive life to be. The world that we think we see is not the world that really is. Our life is nothing but an accumulation of ‘senses’ experiences which we have interpreted and given meaning. Without judgement, life just is.

What we perceive as being ‘bad’, ‘negative’, ‘devastating’, ‘hard’, etc., are according to our senses, our thinking. Without thinking, none of these things would exist. Most of us live our entire lives caught up in our senses, being stuck in thinking; as this is where we think reality exists. The truth is the exact opposite. Our thinking is limited to illusion, as thinking can only perceive motion. Motion is the simulation of stillness, as stillness is all there is, although our senses tell us otherwise.

So then, with this knowledge, how do we live in reality? We live in reality by living in stillness, which exists only in the now. The past and the future are based on motion. Neither the past nor the future exists, except in our thinking. Stillness is who we really are. As we step out of our thinking and silence our minds, what do we find? Nothing but stillness. We are that stillness. That is who we really are. We are the consciousness, the very awareness that underlies all thought and sensing.

We have the opportunity to live in the moment of now, or to live in the past or future. One is reality, the other illusion. The one entails that everything is perfect, the other that it needs to be changed. The one exists in perfect love and acceptance, the other in fear and separation. Many people never get this because it is too simple. They spend their entire lives searching for some wonderful, amazing, world shattering truth or teaching, never realising what they are searching for is constantly in front of them. It is our choice to which course we pursue in life. When we choose to live in the now, in stillness, we live in reality. When we choose to live in the past or future, in our thinking, which is motion, we live in illusion.

How to Start Living Your Perfect Life

Have you ever wondered why things happen in your life as they do? Do you ever ask yourself, why is this happening to me? Does life anger, confuse or frustrate you with what it throws at you sometimes? If you are human, and are honest with yourself, then you will most definitely answer yes to all the above questions. We all desire to know the answer to this enigmatic question, “are the events in our life random, or is there something greater taking place that we cannot naturally see?”

The answer, in reality, is a lot simpler and easier to grasp than we would originally think. Actually, it is the mind, or more specifically, the ego-mind, that is the very cause for such a question needing to be asked. If it wasn’t for the ego-mind, such a question would be irrelevant, as the answer would be eternally before our eyes. For those of you not acquainted with the ego-mind, here is a brief description.

As human beings, we have a split mind in our current phase of progression. We have a unified-mind and an ego-mind. At any given moment, we have only two choices; to see life through the unified-mind or to see it through the ego. The unified-mind is connected with all things, sees all things as being one, and perceives things as they really are. The ego, on the other hand, separates all things, sees things as being separate from the self, and perceives things according to our beliefs, values, language, memory, past experiences etc. The unified-mind perceives reality; the ego perceives illusion.

The problem for each of us is this: we tend to identify with and look at life through the ego, instead of the unified mind. The ego, because it sees things as being separate, creates the illusion that people and events are external to us. On the other hand, reality, only perceivable through the unified-mind, sees all life as being one with us. The unified-mind is based on the truth that, ‘there is only one person in the room’, and that all things are one and interconnected. But, to the ego, such things are ridiculous, as it is based on the illusion that, ‘there are many people in the room’.

For many, this will be the first time you have come across these concepts. Please be aware, that you will most likely be reading this with the ego-mind, and not the unified-mind. Resultantly, your ego will be disgusted at these words, and will be resisting them vehemently. The ego helps form that little voice in your head that talks to you constantly, the one that you have a hard time turning off sometimes. Essentially, these words challenge the ego, especially the hold it has upon your life and what you perceive within it.

The whole purpose of the ego is to create and maintain the illusion of separation. One of the main principles it works according to is found in the phrase, “perception is projection.” Simply put, what we perceive in others is our own projections coming from the ego. If we dislike how our co-worker has a short temper, it is because we also have a short temper. If we regularly get gossiped about, and it angers us, it is because we also gossip, and we feel guilty about it. In reality, all that we experience in others and life is a reflection of our own inner projections. The ego projects all these things, and then perceives them outside in others, thus confirming to itself the illusion that these things are separate from the self. This is the cycle of illusion that we are all trapped in to different degrees.

Thus, to live a perfect life, and answer the great question asked at the start, we must expose the ego, and start living from our unified-mind. When we live from the unified-mind, we accept that everything is perfect in any given moment. This is the true meaning of love. Love can only be experienced from the unified-mind, as the ego only experiences fear, anger, sadness etc. We can only access the unified-mind in the present moment, as all thoughts of past and future come from the ego-mind. This is why the unified-mind perceives reality, as reality only exists NOW, in the moment. This is the great secret to life that it exists in the moment; there is no past or present, only one eternal now. The ego cannot exist in the moment. Because of this, you or I can never live a perfect life from the ego, as ego is based on illusion, and in reality, it doesn’t even exist. This may come as a shock to some, but know it is only the ego-mind that finds this shocking, as the unified-mind, who you really are, already knows and accepts all these truths.

To live your perfect life is to live in the moment. It is to know and trust that each moment will reveal the best course of action. It is to cast off the ego and start perceiving life through the perfect lens of your unified-mind. When you come to realise that you are the only person you interact with every day, you will start living your life, instead of having life live you. The perfect life is to see the universe as a great mirror, always reflecting back to us our own projections, ultimately to move us closer to love. It is to accept that life already is perfect each and every moment. In this way, your perfect life is that of perfect love. To attain this perfect love, we must let go of the ego and start embracing the unified-mind, who we really are.

The Real You Vs. The False You

For many this will seem like an intriguing concept, the concept of there being another you. Most people go about their day by day lives thinking that what they see in the mirror is ‘real’. What’s more, most people believe that everything they see in the world around them is ‘real’. Have you ever seen the cartoon Transformers? It is an old cartoon which was around in the 1990’s and has become popular in recent times by Michael Bay’s attempt at bringing them into the theatre. For those of you who saw the original cartoons, can you remember the tag line in the theme song? For those not familiar with this song the words are, “Transformers, more than meets the eye”. This being the perfect phrase to now use in describing you, as just with the transformers there is also a lot more to you than meets the eye.

Most people tend to identify themselves with what they see in front of them. If you are like most people, when you look in the mirror you believe that person being reflected back is you. As far as you are concerned everything that is ‘you’ can be seen in that mirror. But in reality this couldn’t be further from the truth. What you see in the mirror every day is just the reflection of something greater, something that is hidden within your physical shell which we call our bodies.

This hidden part of ourselves is not hidden in the sense that we are not meant to find it. Neither is it hidden from us so that we will not find it or become aware of it. It is hidden in the fact that it cannot be seen with our traditional five senses. And seems we as humans tend to equate reality with being able to perceive it with one of our senses, we are not normally aware of this ‘hidden’ aspect of ourselves as we go about our day by day lives. It is this hidden aspect of ourselves that we will be looking at here.

Many civilisations, nations, cultures, people throughout the ages have had an awareness of this hidden aspect of being. Many refer to it as spirit, whereas others call it the soul. It is this spirit, this soul, where the ‘real’ you resides. This is the ‘you’ that existed before you were born on earth, and will continue to exist long after you pass through the process we currently call ‘death’. This part of you is eternal; it cannot be created or destroyed.

Now this is completely opposite the characteristics of the ‘you’ you’re acquainted with on a day by day basis. The ‘you’ you’re used to is fat, slow, ugly, dumb, broken, limited, weak, handsome, hairy, short, tall and the list goes on. And according to this part of ourselves we will cease to exist once we die. This is based off the fact that we have seen our ancestors die and be put in the grave; therefore we too will follow the same path.

It is at this point appropriate, after having established that there are two aspects to us as human beings, to put names to these dual aspects of ourselves. First of all, one of these aspects of our being is false, whereas the other is real. No points for guessing which one is which at this point, right? The false aspect of ourselves is called the ‘ego’, with the real aspect of ourselves being referred to as ‘I AM’, or the Higher Self.

Before getting into any more detail it is important to provide some visual aids to help describe what is being explained. The following diagram depicts very basically some attributes of these two different aspects of us as human beings. Following the diagram we will break it down and apply it to ourselves in seeing how this knowledge can benefit us in our day to day lives.

The Real You – ‘I AM’ This is your spirit. This is the eternal you that is: Unlimited Unchangeable Immortal Accepts everything without judgement Part of the One One with all things Exists in the ‘NOW’

The Filters These represent our filters as human beings. These function as we go about our daily lives. The filters are: Beliefs & values Perceptions Environment Memories Decisions Attitudes Language Time/Space It is these filters that determine what we experience in our lives. We do not actually see life as it is, we only see life through these filters. Each of us have differences in how we use these filters, which is why we all experience different things in life.

The False You – ‘The ego’ This is the container that is the effects of the filters on the left. How we use the filters create the ego, or the false self. The ego is your false self, it is the you that is: Limited Changeable Mortal Judges Separate from the One Separate from all things Exists in the past and future At birth, this false self, the ego, is blank. Thus each of us creates our own egos as we go through life from birth. The ego grows and feeds off our filters. Without the filters the ego would not exist.

Let us now take a more detailed look at these dual parts of our being. The deepest, most authentic part of ourselves is who we really are, the ‘I AM’. It is within this ‘I AM’ that our true nature and abilities reside. It is the ‘I AM’ that has come to this part of Earth to experience life within the physical density. This was necessary so the “I AM’ could experience itself in a way that wasn’t possible before we were born on Earth.

As part of being born on Earth we each acquire a physical body of flesh and blood. But we also acquire something else when we enter mortal existence; we acquire filters. As seen in the table above these filters include beliefs & values, perceptions, environment, language and time/space. These filters were not part of our existence before being born on Earth. It is these filters that colour every aspect of our physical lives.

This is where it begins to get very interesting. How we use our filters from birth essentially determines who we become. But you see, who we really are, the ‘I AM’, is unchangeable. Who we really are is already perfect and complete. We are not here to become something as the ‘I AM’ already is all it can be. And it is here we enter into one of the greatest paradoxes that life has to offer.

As we grow as children we begin to experience and use these filters in different ways. As we do so a certain thing known as the ego begins to expand and grow. The more and more we use these filters the stronger the ego becomes. As the ego grows stronger the ‘I AM’ slips more and more into the background. The more control the ego has over our lives, the less control the ‘I AM’ has. Put another way, the more we live from ego, the more of an illusion we live in; and the more we live from ‘I AM’, the closer to reality we live.

The more we identify with ego the less we identify with what is real. The ego does not see things as they really are; it sees things according to the past. For example, after multiple break ups we begin to be resistant to entering into future relationships. Why? Because according to our ego, relationships cause hurt, pain and suffering. Your filters are now coloured accordingly and all you experience in relationships is pain, hurt and suffering. This applies to any experience which we have judged or perceived to be a certain way.

Hence the fact that it is all but an illusion. In reality all of life is a fresh moment, a new moment of NOW. This new moment is not influenced by any of the previous ones, unless we allow it. When we live from ego, we live according to our past, according to our life story. But this story is nothing but an illusion of past beliefs & values, perceptions, environment, language, memories, decisions etc. If we were to drop these filters at any moment we would see life as it really is. This is the paradox we live in. We live in a reality that is an illusion created by ourselves.

The irony of it is that reality is always there to be seen, but we choose not to see it as we live via the ego. The real you, the ‘I AM’, is the pure awareness that exists beyond your thoughts, beyond the filters, and beyond the ego. You are not your thoughts. You are not your filters. You are not your body. And you are most definitely not your ego. These things are parts of you, but they are not you. It is like your body. It is made up of hands, fingers, a head, neck, legs etc. These things are part of you, but they are not who you really are.

As you wake up to this you will start to experience the power that lies within you. As you recognise you are not the voice in your head, it begins to liberate you from the inside out. You will realise you are not a slave to that inner voice, to your emotions, your feelings, and your thoughts. You will realise that you are the silent ‘I AM’ that underlies all of these things, the part of you that is real. As you get in touch with this ‘real’ you, life as you know it begins to shift dramatically. You realise that you have been living in an illusion, albeit an illusion that seems very real while you are in it. Einstein affirmed this as near the end of his life he stated, “Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one”.

You cannot begin to live your full potential until you realise who you really are, and in order to do this you need to understand who you are not. I hope that as a result of reading this you now have a better idea of who you are not, so that you might more fully get in touch with who you really are. There is so much more to you than meets the eye. The more you get in touch with the ‘real’ you, the more you will be able to transform your life. It all starts with a decision, the decision to act. Will you continue living in the illusion, or are you ready to step out of the illusion into reality. The choice is yours.

What is Our True Potential?

The answer to this question has been a topic of discussion since the dawn of time itself. But in order to understand the answer fully, one needs to fully comprehend one simple fact. The very essence of our being is of a dual nature. One is real, the other just an illusion. The real part of us, the spirit, that immortal aspect of us, had it's existence before we were born into this physical body. The illusionary part of us, the ego, that mortal aspect of us, came into existence when we were born into this life with a physical body.

This is such a fundamental truth of our existence, yet so very few people have a knowledge of it, yet alone understand it. This is especially so in the western civilisations as there is such a huge focus on the physical, worldly aspect of life that the spiritual, unseen part of life is often completely overlooked and disregarded. But this very fact remains even when knowledge of it is absent, that human's and life share a common bond of having a dual nature, one being physical and the other being spiritual. The spiritual part of life is reality. One of the fundamental laws of the universe is the law of cause and effect. The spiritual aspect of life in all its forms is the cause level. And the physical aspect of life in all its forms is the effect level.

Let me ask you this question. Where do most people place all their attention and awareness? Is it on the spiritual, cause level; or the physical, effect level? That's right, most people only have their awareness in the physical, effect level of reality. Now remember, the physical aspect of life is an illusion, it is not real. The physical merely reflects the effects of things that are taking place on another, deeper level. And that deeper level is the spiritual level, the level of true reality. This is the level where all things existed BEFORE they became physical. That's right, ALL things that have previously existed, do now exist and will ever exist physically had their existence first spiritually.

This truth is consistent through all of life. All things on this planet have a dual nature, including Human Being's. Now our TRUE potential exists in only one of these aspects of our being. The problem is, most of us Human Being's believe our true potential is found and expressed in the physical aspect of ourselves. This couldn't be further from the truth. The truth is this, that you are a spiritual being have a short physical experience. The truth is that you existed long before entering this world as a baby with a physical body, and you will exist long after you leave this world through the process we call death.

You see the nature of the ego is separation. The ego is limited by our beliefs, values, thoughts and perceptions. When you look at life through the ego you are destined to encounter fear, anger, hurt, sadness etc.. All emotions are created from judgement. The day you stop judging the world, and others in the world, is the day you will never experience another emotion. Emotions are the physical bodies response to judgements and perceptions taking place in your mind. Remember the physical is the effect level, not the cause. So in order for something physical to be created, it first had to exist in the non physical.

When you live life through the ego aspect of your being, you are automatically limited. Looking at life through the veil of ego is like living in a dream. In this dream you only see things according to your beliefs, values and perceptions. You do not see life as it really is, you see life as you are according to your beliefs, values and perceptions. It is not possible to experience life as it really is in this dream like state. This is why it is an illusion. And the funny part is that we live life as though the illusion was reality. Funnier still is the fact that we created the illusion and then believe it is reality without even knowing it. Trust me I know as I have been there and am still there in many facets of  life.

So then where does our true potential lie? It is in the other half of our nature, the spiritual, immortal part of us. Some refer to this as our conciousness, the untainted awareness that lies beyond our thoughts. This awareness is accessible only in moments of peace and clarity. It is the stillness that exists beyond thoughts and is accessible through meditation and other such practices. This state of pure conciousness and presence is where your true potential lies. It is the immortal aspect of yourself, the real you so to speak. This is the part of you that possesses all the seeds of Divinity and unlimited potential.

As a person gets in touch with this aspect of themselves a whole new world opens up to them. An aspect of themselves they never knew existed. When you go through your day to day life looking through the real aspect of yourself it is a completely new experience. It is through this pure conciousness that you see life as it really is. Emotions do not exist when you live from this aspect of yourself. Emotions are replaced by states of being, or in other words, the true parts of yourself. You realise that you do not need to be anyone other than who you are in this state. All judgement is non existent from this aspect of yourself. Separation is also non existent as all things are one and equal. A person is only able to express their true nature and potential when they get in touch with this immortal aspect of themselves. It is here that we must seek to live from. It is here where we get in touch with the reality of who we are and what we can really achieve in this life and beyond.

 

The truth is that each Human Being on this planet has unlimited potential as a Son or Daughter of the Divine. Call this Divine personage or essence what you may, but the truth is that each of us has the same blueprints within as inherited from our Divine parentage. Remember we are each beings of a dual nature. One is real, one is an illusion. One is spiritual, the other physical. One is conciousness, the other ego. One is our true potential, the other our fake potential. It is our choice which side we live from. No one can make the choice for you. 

Knowledge is not enough. For knowledge to work it needs to be put into action, and that also is your choice. You can either live from the cause side of life where you create the life you want; or you can live on the effect side of life where your life is created for you by forces outside of yourself. Either way it is your choice.