How do we know that the world is an illusion?

How do we know that the world is an illusion?

Dear Rupert,

Can you explain to me how you know this is all an illusion, how we arrived at being a human being and then were told it is an illusion, that our egos are an illusion, that we are not the body or the mind, that I am that?

And what is ‘that’, and how do you know that is that? If consciousness is all there is, how do you know that? Stephen Wolinsky says the only reason we believe we are here is that we have a brain and a nervous system that buys into the senses. How do you know that? Sailor Bob says we are the life essence known as awareness, consciousness, mindfulness, wakefulness, or the same intelligence energy that functions this universe, the one essence!

Why do you feel the way you do and I don’t? And how do I get what you’ve got? Don’t tell me I already have it, because presently I don’t feel it and don’t know what you are talking about, but know that Advaita is the path to go down. Have you any tools that I might find useful to experience? You mention that Francis Lucille introduced you to the Direct Path. What is that? I can’t find it on his website. Please explain! 

Best wishes,
Fiona

 

Dear Fiona,

Fiona:Can you explain to me how you know this is all an illusion, how we arrived at being a human being and then were told it is an illusion, that our egos are an illusion, that we are not the body or the mind, that I am that?

Rupert:When it is said that the world is an illusion, it means that the world as it is normally conceived to be is an illusion. The world is normally conceived to exist in its own right, separate from and independent of the awareness or consciousness that knows or experiences it. 

Nobody has ever experienced such a world, because it would be impossible to have an experience without consciousness. Hence it is said to be an illusion. However, this does not mean that experience is an illusion.

We are not a human being. We are simply being itself, that is, the knowing presence in all experience. We limit ourself to being a human when we exclusively identify this being which we are with a little cluster of sensations called the body.

The ego is the entity that is imagined to exist when awareness or being is believed to be limited to a body. Look for that entity and you will not find it. Hence it is said to be an illusion.

And what is ‘that’, and how do you know that is that?

‘That’ is awareness, which is the name we give to whatever is seeing or aware of these words. It is also aware of your thoughts, images, bodily sensations and perceptions. It is undeniably present, but if we look for it we do not find it as an object. It is aware of all objects but is not itself an object. If we cannot find it as an object, what makes us think it is located in the head or the body?

If consciousness is all there is, how do you know that?

Simply because it is my experience. When we watch a film we seem to see three dimensions of space, but in fact we see only the two-dimensional screen. Likewise, experience seems to be made of objects and entities but in fact is only made of consciousness.

Look very closely and you will find that there is nothing in your experience that is separate from consciousness, and if you look closer you will find that the only substance to all experience is the same consciousness.

 

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Stephen Wolinsky says the only reason we believe we are here is that we have a brain and a nervous system that buys into the senses. How do you know that?

I don’t know about the brain and the nervous system, but I know that without the mind (in the broadest sense of the word, to include all thinking, imagining, sensing and perceiving) there is no sense of being a human nor any sense of a world.

Ask yourself, ‘Do I cease to be in deep sleep?’ No! But do I know that I am a human or that there is a world when I am deeply asleep? No. Therefore, ‘I’ is independent of the mind. The human and the world arise and fall with the mind, but that awareness that we are is prior to that.

Sailor Bob says we are the life essence known as awareness, consciousness, mindfulness, wakefulness, or the same intelligence energy that functions this universe, the one essence! Why do you feel the way you do and I don’t?

I feel that way because it is my experience that it is that way. Why do you not feel it? Simply because you have not looked closely, simply and honestly at your experience. Your experience is exactly the same as mine, but you have superimposed upon it a layer of concepts and beliefs and have mistaken them for reality.

How do I get what you’ve got?

By exploring these beliefs and seeing clearly that they are not a true representation of your direct experience. This will leave you completely open to another possibility. As we stand open and unknowing on the threshold of this possibility, it will gather us in.

Have you any tools that I might find useful to experience? You mention that Francis Lucille introduced you to the Direct Path. What is that? I can’t find it on his website. Please explain!

Yes, there are many tools that are available. My website is full of them, likewise my book, The Transparency of Things. There are many meditations and conversations available for download on my site which deal with exactly these issues in great detail.

The Direct Path is the path that points out that we are awareness (whatever it is that is seeing these words) and from there explores the experience of the mind, body and world. Francis and I talk of little else!

With kind regards,
Rupert

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